25     OEHSTT'S. 


VOLTAIRE. 


LECTURE 


BY 


ROBERT  G.  INGERSOLL. 


"Voltaire  gave  the  death  stab  to  modern  superstition." — CARLVLE. 


NEW  YORK. 
C.  P.   FARRELL,  PUBLISHER, 

1895. 


NOTICE! 

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Col.  Ingersoll's  Note  to  the  Public. 

Washing-ton,  D.  C.,  July  TO,  1889. 

I  wish  to  notify  the.  public  that  all  books  and  pamphlets  pur- 
porting to  contain  my  lectures,  and  not  containing  the  imprint  of 
Mr.  C.  P.  FARRELL  as  publisher,  are  spurious,  grossly  inaccu- 
rate, filled  with  mistakes,  horribly  printed,  and  outrageously 
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C.  P.  FARRELL. 

R.   G.   INGERSOLL. 


LIBKARY 


Vcltaira, 


VOLTAIRE. 


A  LECTURE 


BY 


ROBERT  G.  INGERSOLL. 


Voltaire  was  the  greatest  man  of  his  century,  and  did  more  to  free  the  human 
race  than  any  other  of  the  sons  of  men. 


NEW  YORK. 

C.  P.  FARRELL,  PUBLISHER, 
1895. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1895, 

BY  ROBERT  G.    INGERSOLL, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


THE  ECKLER 

35    r<JLTON  v5 

NEW  YORK. 


VOLTAIRE. 


I. 

'T'HE  infidels  of  one  age  have  often  been  the  au- 
reoled  saints  of  the  next. 

The  destroyers  of  the  old  are  the  creators  of  the 
new. 

As  time  sweeps  on  the  old  passes  away  and  the 
new  in  its  turn  becomes  old. 

There  is  in  the  intellectual  world,  as  in  the  physi- 
cal, decay  and  growth,  and  ever  by  the  grave  of 
buried  age  stand  youth  and  joy. 

The  history  of  intellectual  progress  is  written  in 
the  lives  of  infidels. 

Political  rights  have  been  preserved  by  traitors  ; 
the  liberty  of  mind  by  heretics. 

To  attack  the  king  was  treason  ;  to  dispute  the 
priest  was  blasphemy. 

For  many  centuries  the  sword  and  cross  were 


4  VOLTAIRE. 

allies.  Together  they  attacked  the  rights  of  man. 
They  defended  each  other. 

The  throne  and  altar  were  twins — two  vultures 
from  the  same  egg. 

James  I.  said  :  "  No  bishop,  no  king."  He  might 
have  added  :  No  cross,  no  crown.  The  King  owned 
the  bodies  of  men  ;  the  priest,  the  souls.  One  lived 
on  taxes  collected  by  force,  the  other  on  alms  col- 
lected by  fear — both  robbers,  both  beggars. 

These  robbers  and  these  beggars  controlled  two 
worlds.  The  king  made  laws,  the  priest  made 
creeds.  Both  obtained  their  authority  from  God, 
both  were  the  agents  of  the  infinite. 

With  bowed  backs  the  people  carried  the  burdens 
of  one,  and  with  wonder's  open  mouth  received  the 
dogmas  of  the  other. 

If  the  people  aspired  to  be  free,  they  were  crushed 
by  the  king,  and  every  priest  was  a  Herod,  who 
slaughtered  the  children  of  the  brain. 

The  king  ruled  by  force,  the  priest  by  fear,  and 
both  by  both. 

The  king  said  to  the  people  :  "  God  made  you 
peasants,  and  He  made  me  king  ;  He  made  you  to 
labor,  and  me  to  enjoy  ;  He  made  rags  and  hovels 
for  you,  robes  and  palaces  for  me.  He  made  you  to 


VOLTAIRE.  5 

obey,  and  me  to  command.  Such  is  the  justice  of 
God." 

And  the  priest  said  :  "  God  made  you  ignorant 
and  vile  ;  He  made  me  holy  and  wise  ;  you  are  the 
sheep,  I  am  the  shepherd  ;  your  fleeces  belong  to 
me.  If  you  do  not  obey  me  here,  God  will  punish 
you  now  and  torment  you  forever  in  another  world. 
Such  is  the  mercy  of  God." 

"  You  must  not  reason.  Reason  is  a  rebel.  You 
must  not  contradict  —  contradiction  is  born  of  ego- 
tism ;  you  must  believe.  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear 
let  him  hear."  Heaven  was  a  question  of  ears. 

Fortunately  for  us,  there  have  been  traitors  and 
there  have  been  heretics,  blasphemers,  thinkers,  in- 
vestigators, lovers  of  liberty,  men  of  genius  who 
have  given  their  lives  to  better  the  condition  of  their 
fellow- men. 

It  may  be  well  enough  here  to  ask  the  question  : 
"  What  is  greatness  ?  " 

A  great  man  adds  to  the  sum  of  knowledge,  ex- 
tends the  horizon  of  thought,  releases  souls  from  the 
Bastile  of  fear,  crosses  unknown  and  mysterious 
seas,  gives  new  islands  and  new  continents  to  the 
domain  of  thought,  new  constellations  to  the  firma- 
ment of  mind.  A  great  man  does  not  seek  applause 


6  VOLTAIRE. 

or  place  ;  he  seeks  for  truth  ;  he  seeks  the  road  to 
happiness,  and  what  he  ascertains  he  gives  to  others. 

A  great  man  throws  pearls  before  swine,  and  the 
swine  are  sometimes  changed  to  men.  If  the  great 
had  always  kept  their  pearls,  vast  multitudes  would 
be  barbarians  now. 

A  great  man  is  a  torch  in  the  darkness,  a  beacon 
in  superstition's  night,  an  inspiration  and  a  prophecy. 

Greatness  is  not  the  gift  of  majorities  ;  it  cannot 
be  thrust  upon  any  man  ;  men  cannot  give  it  to  an- 
other ;  they  can  give  place  and  power,  but  not 
greatness. 

The  place  does  not  make  the  man,  nor  the  sceptre 
the  king.  Greatness  is  from  within. 

The  great  men  are  the  heroes  who  have  freed  the 
bodies  of  men  ;  they  are  the  philosophers  and  think- 
ers who  have  given  liberty  to  the  soul  ;  they  are 
the  poets  who  have  transfigured  the  common  and 
filled  the  lives  of  many  millions  with  love  and  song. 

They  are  the  artists  who  have  covered  the  bare 
walls  of  weary  life  with  the  triumphs  of  genius. 

They  are  the  heroes  who  have  slain  the  monsters 
of  ignorance  and  fear,  who  have  outgazed  the  Gorgon 
and  driven  the  cruel  gods  from  their  thrones. 

They  are  the  inventors,  the  discoverers,  the  great 


VOLTAIRE.  7 

mechanics,  the  kings  of  the  useful  who  have  civilized 
this  world. 

At  the  head  of  this  heroic  army,  foremost  of  all, 
stands  Voltaire,  whose  memory  we  are  honoring  to- 
night. 

Voltaire !  a  name  that  excites  the  admiration  of 
men,  the  malignity  of  priests.  Pronounce  that  name 
in  the  presence  of  a  clergyman,  and  you  will  find 
that  you  have  made  a  declaration  of  war.  Pro- 
nounce that  name,  and  from  the  face  of  the  priest 
the  mask  of  meekness  will  fall,  and  from  the  mouth 
of  forgiveness  will  pour  a  Niagara  of  vituperation 
and  calumny.  And  yet  Voltaire  was  the  greatest 
man  of  his  Century,  and  did  more  to  free  the  human 
race  than  any  other  of  the  sons  of  men. 

On  Sunday,  the  2ist  of  November,  1694,  a  babe 
was  born  —  a  babe  so  exceedingly  frail  that  the 
breath  hesitated  about  remaining,  and  the  parents 
had  him  baptized  as  soon  as  possible.  They  were 
anxious  to  save  the  soul  of  this  babe,  and  they  knew 
that  if  death  came  before  baptism  the  child  would  be 
doomed  to  an  eternity  of  pain.  They  knew  that 
God  despised  an  unsprinkled  child.  The  priest, 
who,  with  a  few  drops  of  water,  gave  the  name  of 
Francois- Marie  Arouet,  to  this  babe  and  saved  his 
soul  —  little  thought  that  before  him,  wrapped  in 


8  VOLTAIRE. 

many  folds,  weakly  wailing,  scarcely  breathing,  was 
the  one  destined  to  tear  from  the  white  throat  of 
Liberty  the  cruel,  murderous  claws  of  the  "  Triumph- 
ant Beast." 

When  Voltaire  came  to  this  "  great  stage  of  fools," 
his  country  had  been  christianized  —  not  civilized  — 
for  about  fourteen  hundred  years.  For  a  thousand 
years  the  religion  of  peace  and  good-will  had  been 
supreme.  The  laws  had  been  given  by  Christian 
kings,  and  sanctioned  by  "  wise  and  holy  men." 

Under  the  benign  reign  of  universal  love,  every 
court  had  its  chamber  of  torture,  and  every  priest 
relied  on  the  thumb-screw  and  rack. 

Such  had  been  the  success  of  the  blessed  gospel 
that  every  science  was  an  outcast. 

To  speak  your  honest  thoughts,  to  teach  your 
fellow-men,  to  investigate  for  yourself,  to  seek  the 
truth,  these  were  all  crimes,  and  the  "  holy-mother 
church  "  pursued  the  criminals  with  sword  and  flame. 

The  believers  in  a  God  of  love  —  an  infinite  father 
— punished  hundreds  of  offences  with  torture  and 
death.  Suspected  persons  were  tortured  to  make 
them  confess.  Convicted  persons  were  tortured  to 
make  them  give  the  names  of  their  accomplices. 
Under  the  leadership  of  the  Church,  cruelty  had  be- 
come the  only  reforming  power. 


VOLTAIRE.  •  9 

In  this  blessed  year  1 694  all  authors  were  at  the 
mercy  of  king  and  priest.  The  most  of  them  were 
cast  into  prisons,  impoverished  by  fines  and  costs, 
exiled  or  executed. 

The  little  time  that  hangmen  could  snatch  from 
professional  duties  was  occupied  in  burning  books. 

The  courts  of  justice  were  traps,  in  which  the  in- 
nocent were  caught.  The  judges  were  almost  as 
malicious  and  cruel  as  though  they  had  been  bishops 
or  saints.  There  was  no  trial  by  jury,  and  the  rules 
of  evidence  allowed  the  conviction  of  the  supposed 
criminal  by  the  proof  of  suspicion  or  hearsay. 

The  witnesses,  being  liable  to  be  tortured,  gen- 
erally told  what  the  judges  wished  to  hear. 

The  supernatural  and  the  miraculous  controlled 
the  world.  Everything  was  explained,  but  nothing 
was  understood.  The  Church  was  at  the  head. 
The  sick  bought  from  monks  little  amulets  of  conse- 
crated paper.  They  did  not  send  for  a  doctor,  but 
for  a  priest,  and  the  priest  sold  the  diseased  and  the 
dying  these  magical  amulets.  These  little  pieces  of 
paper  with  the  help  of  some  saint  would  cure  dis- 
eases of  every  kind.  If  you  would  put  one  in  a 
cradle,  it  would  keep  the  child  from  being  bewitched. 
If  you  would  put  one  in  the  barn,  the  rats  would  not 


IO  VOLTAIRE. 

eat  your  corn.  If  you  would  keep  one  in  the  house, 
evil  spirits  would  not  enter  your  doors,  and  if  you 
buried  them  in  the  fields,  you  would  have  good 
weather,  the  frost  would  be  delayed,  rain  would 
come  when  needed,  and  abundant  crops  would  bless 
your  labor.  The  Church  insisted  that  all  diseases 
could  be  cured  in  the  name  of  God,  and  that  these 
cures  could  be  effected  by  prayers,  exorcism,  by 
touching  bones  of  saints,  pieces  of  the  true  cross  ; 
by  being  sprinkled  with  holy  water  or  with  sanctified 
salt,  or  touched  with  magical  oil. 

In  that  day  the  dead  saints  were  the  best  physi- 
cians; St.  Valentine  cured  the  epilepsy  ;  St.  Gerva- 
sius  was  exceedingly  good  for  rheumatism  ;  St. 
Michael  for  cancer  ;  St.  Judas  for  coughs  and  colds  ; 
St.  Ovidius  restored  the  hearing  ;  St.  Sebastian  was 
good  for  the  bites  of  snakes  and  the  stings  of  poison- 
ous insects  ;  St.  Apollonia  for  toothache  ;  St.  Clara 
for  any  trouble  with  the  eyes  ;  and  St.  Hubert  for 
hydrophobia.  It  was  known  that  doctors  reduced 
the  revenues  of  the  Church  ;  that  was  enough  — 
science  was  the  enemy  of  religion. 

The  Church  thought  that  the  air  was  filled  with 
devils  ;  that  every  sinner  was  a  kind  of  a  tenement 
house  inhabited  by  evil  spirits  ;  that  angels  were  on 


VOLTAIRE.  I  I 

one  side  of  men  and  evil  spirits  on  the  other,  and 
that  God  would,  when  the  subscriptions  and  dona- 
tions justified  the  effort,  drive  the  evil  spirits  from 
the  field. 

Satan  had  power  over  the  air  ;  consequently  he 
controlled  the  frost,  the  mildew,  the  lightning  and 
the  flood  ;  and  the  principal  business  of  the  Church 
was  with  bells,  and  holy  water,  and  incense,  and 
crosses,  to  defeat  the  machinations  of  that  prince  of 
the  power  of  the  air. 

Great  reliance  was  placed  upon  the  bells  ;  they 
were  sprinkled  with  holy  water,  and  their  clangor 
cleared  the  air  of  imps  and  fiends.  And  bells  also 
protected  the  people  from  storms  and  lightning.  In 
that  day  the  Church  used  to  anathematize  insects. 
Suits  were  commenced  against  rats,  and  judgment 
rendered.  Every  monastery  had  its  master  magi- 
cian, who  sold  incense  and  salt  and  tapers,  and  con- 
secrated palms  and  relics.  Every  science  was 
regarded  as  an  enemy  ;  every  fact  held  the  creed  of 
the  Church  in  scorn.  Investigators  were  regarded 
as  dangerous  ;  thinkers  were  traitors,  and  the  Church 
exerted  its  vast  power  to  prevent  the  intellectual 
progress  of  man. 

There  was  no  real  liberty,  no  real  education,  no 


1 1  VOLTAIRE. 

real  philosophy,  no  real  science  —  nothing  but  cre- 
dulity and  superstition.  The  world  was  under  the 
control  of  Satan  and  the  Church. 

The  Church  firmly  believed  in  the  existence  of 
witches  and  devils  and  fiends.  In  this  way  the 
Church  had  every  enemy  within  her  power.  It 
simply  had  to  charge  him  with  being  a  wizard,  of 
holding  communications  with  devils,  and  the  ignorant 
mob  were  ready  to  tear  him  to  pieces.  So  preva- 
lent was  this  belief,  this  belief  in  the  supernatural, 
that  the  poor  people  were  finally  driven  to  make  the 
best  possible  terms  they  could  with  the  spirit  of  evil. 
This  frightful  doctrine  filled  every  friend  with  sus- 
picion of  his  friend  ;  it  made  the  husband  denounce 
the  wife,  children  their  parents,  parents  their  chil- 
dren. It  destroyed  the  amenities  of  humanity  ;  it 
did  away  with  justice  in  courts ;  it  broke  the 
bond  of  friendship  ;  it  filled  with  poison  the  golden 
cup  of  life  ;  it  turned  earth  into  a  very  perdition 
peopled  with  abominable,  malicious  and  hideous 
fiends.  Such  wras  the  result  of  a  belief  in  the  super- 
natural ;  such  was  the  result  of  giving  up  the  evi- 
dence of  their  own  senses  and  relying  upon  dreams, 
visions  and  fears.  Such  was  the  result  of  the  attack 
upon  the  human  reason ;  such  the  result  of  de- 


VOLTAIRE.  13 

pending  on  the  imagination,  on  the  supernatural ; 
such  the  result  of  living  in  this  world  for  another;  of 
depending  upon  priests  instead  of  upon  ourselves. 
The  Protestants  vied  with  Catholics  ;  Luther  stood 
side  by  side  with  the  priests  he  had  deserted  in  pro- 
moting this  belief  in  devils  and  fiends.  To  the 
Catholic  every  Protestant  was  possessed  by  a  devil ; 
to  the  Protestant  every  Catholic  was  the  home  of  a 
fiend.  All  order,  all  regular  succession  of  causes  and 
effects  were  known  no  more ;  the  natural  ceased  to 
exist ;  the  learned  and  the  ignorant  were  on  a  level. 
The  priest  was  caught  in  the  net  he  had  spread  for 
the  peasant,  and  Christendom  became  a  vast  mad- 
house, with  the  insane  for  keepers. 

When  Voltaire  was  born  the  Church  ruled  and 
owned  France.  It  was  a  period  of  almost  universal 
corruption.  The  priests  were  mostly  libertines,  the 
judges  cruel  and  venal.  The  royal  palace  was  a 
house  of  prostitution.  The  nobles  were  heartless, 
proud,  arrogant  and  cruel  to  the  last  degree.  The 
common  people  were  treated  as  beasts.  It  took  the 
Church  a  thousand  years  to  bring  about  this  happy 
condition  of  things. 

The  seeds  of  the  Revolution  unconsciously  were 
being  scattered  by  every  noble  and  by  every  priest. 


14  VOLTAIRE. 

They  were  germinating  slowly  in  the  hearts  of  the 
wretched  ;  they  were  being  watered  by  the  tears  of 
agony ;  blows  began  to  bear  interest.  There  was  a 
faint  longing  for  blood.  Workmen,  blackened  by 
the  sun,  bowed  by  labor,  deformed  by  want,  looked 
at  the  white  throats  of  scornful  ladies  and  thgught 
about  cutting  them. 

In  those  days  witnesses  were  cross-examined  with 
instruments  of  torture  ;  the  Church  was  the  arsenal 
of  superstition  ;  miracles,  relics,  angels  and  devils 
were  as  common  as  lies. 

In  order  to  appreciate  a  great  man  we  must  know 
his  surroundings.  We  must  understand  the  scope 
of  the  drama  in  which  he  played  —  the  part  he  acted, 
and  we  must  also  know  his  audience. 

In  England  George  I.  was  disporting  with  the 
"  May-pole"  and  "  Elephant,"  and  then  George  II., 
jealous  and  choleric,  hating  the  English  and  their 
language,  making,  however,  an  excellent  image  or 
idol  before  whom  the  English  were  glad  to  bow  — 
snobbery  triumphant  —  the  criminal  code  getting 
bloodier  every  day — 223  offences  punishable  with 
death — the  prisons  filled  and  the  scaffolds  crowded 
—  efforts  on  every  hand  to  repress  the  ambition  of 
men  to  be  men  —  the  Church  relying  on  supersti- 


VOLTAIRE.  1 5 

tion  and  ceremony  to  make  men  good — and  the 
State  dependent  on  the  whip,  the  rope  and  axe  to 
make  men  patriotic, 

In  Spain,  the  Inquisition  in  full  control — all  the 
instruments  of  torture  used  to  prevent  the  develop- 
ment of  the  mind,  Spain,  that  had  driven  out  the 
Jews,  that  is,  to  say,  her  talent ;  that  had  driven  out 
the  Moors  ;  that  is  to  say,  her  taste  and  her  indus- 
try, was  still  endeavoring  by  all  religious  means  to 
reduce  the  land  to  the  imbecility  of  the  true  faith. 

In  Portugal,  they  were  burning  women  and  chil- 
dren for  having  eaten  meat  on  a  holy  day,  and  this 
to  please  the  most  merciful  God, 

In  Italy,  the  nation  prostrate,  covered  with  swarms 
of  cardinals  and  bishops  and  priests  and  monks  and 
nuns  and  every  representative  of  holy  sloth.  The 
Inquisition  there  also  —  while  hands  that  were 
clasped  in  prayer  or  stretched  for  alms,  grasped  with 
eagerness  and  joy  the  lever  of  the  rack,  or  gathered 
fagots  for  the  holy  flame. 

In  Germany,  they  were  burning  men  and  women 
charged  with  having  made  a  compact  with  the 
enemy  of  man. 

And  in  our  own  fair  land,  persecuting  Quakers, 
stealing  men  and  women  from  another  shore,  steal- 


1 6  VOLTAIRE. 

ing  children  from  their  mother's  breasts,  and  paying 
labor  with  the  cruel  lash. 

Superstition  ruled  the  world  ! 

There  is  but  one  use  for  law,  but  one  excuse  for 
government — the  preservation  of  liberty — to  give 
to  each  man  his  own,  to  secure  to  the  farmer  what 
he  produces  from  the  soil,  the  mechanic  what  he  in- 
vents and  makes,  to  the  artist  what  he  creates,  to 
the  thinker  the  right  to  express  his  thoughts.  Lib- 
erty is  the  breath  of  progress. 

In  France,  the  people  were  the  sport  of  a  king's 
caprice.  Everywhere  was  the  shadow  of  the  Bas- 
tile.  It  fell  upon  the  sunniest  field,  upon  the  happi- 
est home.  With  the  king  walked  the  headsman  ; 
back  of  the  throne  was  the  chamber  of  torture.-  The 
Church  appealed  to  the  rack,  and  Faith  relied  on 
the  fagot.  Science  was  an  outcast,  and  Philosophy, 
so-called,  was  the  pander  of  superstition. 

Nobles  and  priests  were  sacred.  Peasants  were 
vermin.  Idleness  sat  at  the  banquet,  and  Industry 
gathered  the  crumbs  and  the  crusts. 


VOLTAIRE.  1 7 


II. 

THE  DAYS  OF  YOUTH. 

\  7OLTAIRE  was  of  the  people.  In  the  language 
of  that  day,  he  had  no  ancestors.  His  real  name 
was  Francois- Marie  Arouet.  His  mother  was  Mar- 
guerite d'Aumard.  This  mother  died  when  he  was 
seven  years  of  age.  He  had  an  elder  brother, 
Armand,  who  was  a  devotee,  very  religious  and  ex- 
ceedingly disagreeable.  This  brother  used  to  pre- 
sent offerings  to  the  Church,  hoping  to  make  amends 
for  the  unbelief  of  his  brother.  So  far  as  we  know, 
none  of  his  ancestors  were  literary  people. 

The  Arouets  had  never  written  a  line.  The  Abbe 
de  Chatilieu  was  his  godfather,  and,  although  an 
abbe,  was  a  Deist  who  cared  nothing  about  religion 
except  in  connection  with  his  salary.  Voltaire's 
father  wanted  to  make  a  lawyer  of  him,  but  he  had 
no  taste  for  law.  At  the  age  of  ten  he  entered  the 
college  of  Louis  Le  Grand.  This  was  a  Jesuit 
school,  and  here  he  remained  for  seven  years,  leav- 
ing at  seventeen,  and  never  attending  any  other 


1 8  VOLTAIRE. 

school.  According  to  Voltaire,  he  learned  nothing 
at  this  school  but  a  little  Greek,  a  good  deal  of 
Latin  and  a  vast  amount  of  nonsense. 

In  this  college  of  Louis  Le  Grand  they  did  not 
teach  geography,  history,  mathematics  or  any  science. 
This  was  a  Catholic  institution,  controlled  by  the 
Jesuits.  In  that  day  the  religion  was  defended,  was 
protected  or  supported  by  the  State.  Behind  the 
entire  creed  were  the  bayonet,  the  ax,  the  wheel, 
the  fagot  and  the  torture  chamber. 

While  Voltaire  was  attending  the  college  of  Louis 
Le  Grand  the  soldiers  of  the  king  were  hunting 
Protestants  in  the  mountains  of  Cevennes  for  masfis- 

o 

istrates  to  hang  on  gibbets,  to  put  to  torture,  to 
break  on  the  wheel,  or  to  burn  at  the  stake. 

At  seventeen  Voltaire  determined  to  devote  his 
life  to  literature.  The  father  said,  speaking  of  his 
two  sons  Armand  and  Francois,  "  I  have  a  pair  of 
fools  for  sons,  one  in  verse  and  the  other  in  prose." 

In  1713  Voltaire,  in  a  small  way,  became  a  cliplo 
mat.  He  went  to  The  Hague  attached  to  the  French 
minister,  and  there  he  fell  in  love.  The  girl's 
mother  objected.  Voltaire  sent  his  clothes  to  the 
young  lady  that  she  might  visit  him.  Everything 
was  discovered  and  he  was  dismissed.  To  this  girl 


VOLTAIRE.  19 

he  wrote  a  letter,  and  in  it  you  will  find  the  key  note 
of  Voltaire  :  "  Do  not  expose  yourself  to  the  fury 
of  your  mother.  You  know  what  she  is  capable  of. 
You  have  experienced  it  too  well.  Dissemble  ;  it  is 
your  only  chance.  Tell  her  that  you  have  forgotten 
me,  that  you  hate  me  ;  then  after  telling  her,  love 
me  all  the  more." 

On  account  of  this  episode  Voltaire  was  formally 
disinherited  by  his  father.  The  father  procured  an 
order  of  arrest  and  gave  his  son  the  choice  of  going 
to  prison  or  beyond  the  seas.  He  finally  consented 
to  become  a  lawyer,  and  says  :  "  I  have  already 
been  a  week  at  work  in  the  office  of  a  solicitor 
learning  the  trade  of  a  pettifogger." 

About  this  time  he  competed  for  a  prize,  writing 
a  poem  on  the  king's  generosity  in  building  the  new 
choir  in  the  cathedral  Notre  Dame.  He  did  not 
win  it.  After  being  with  the  solicitor  a  little  while, 
he  hated  the  law,  began  to  write  poetry  and  the  out- 
lines of  tragedy.  Great  questions  were  then  agita- 
ting the  public  mind,  questions  that  throw  a  flood  of 
light  upon  that  epoch. 

In  1 55 2,  Dr.  Baius  took  it  into  his  head  to  sustain 
a  number  of  propositions  touching  predestination  to 
the  prejudice  of  the  doctrine  of  free  will.  The  Cor- 


20  VOLTAIRE. 

delian  monks  selected  seventy-six  of  the  proposi- 
tions and  denounced  them  to  the  Pope  as  heretical, 
and  from  the  Pope  obtained  what  was  called  a  Bull. 
This  Bull  contained  a  doubtful  passage,  the  meaning 
of  which  was  dependent  upon  the  position  of  a 
comma.  The  friends  of  Dr.  Baius  wrote  to  Rome  to 
find  where  the  comma  ought  to  be  placed.  Rome, 
busy  with  other  matter,  sent  as  an  answer  a  copy  of 
the  Bull  in  which  the  doubtful  sentence  was  left 
without  any  comma.  So  the  dispute  continued. 

Then,  there  was  the  great  controversy  between 
the  Jansenists  and  Molinists,  Molini  was  a  Spanish 
Jesuit,  who  sustained  the  doctrine  of  free  will  with  a 
subtlety  of  his  own,  "  man's  will  is  free,  but  God 
sees  exactly  how  he  will  use  it."  The  Presbyterians 
of  our  country  are  still  wrestling  with  this  important 
absurdity. 

Jansenius  was  a  French  Jesuit  who  carried  the 
doctrine  of  predestination  to  the  extreme,  asserting 
that  God  commands  things  that  are  impossible,  and 
that  Christ  did  not  die  for  all. 

In  1641  the  Jesuits  obtained  a  Bull  condemning 
five  propositions  of  Jansenius.  The  Jansenists  there- 
upon denied  that  the  five  propositions — or  any  of 
them  —  were  found  in  the  works  of  Jansenius. 


VOLTAIRE.  2 1 

This  question  of  Jansenism  and  Molinism  occupied 
France  for  about  two  hundred  years. 

In  Voltaire's  time  the  question  had  finally  dwindled 
down  to  whether  the  five  propositions  condemned 
by  the  Papal  Bull  were  in  fact  in  the  works  of 
Jansenius.  The  Jansenists  proved  that  the  five 
propositions  were  not  in  his  book,  because  a  neice  of 
Pascal  had  a  diseased  eye  cured  by  the  application 
of  a  thorn  from  the  crown  of  Christ. 

The  Bull  Unigenitus  was  launched  in  1713,  and 
then  all  the  prisons  were  filled  with  Jansenists. 
This  great  question  of  predestination  and  free  will, 
of  free  moral  agency  and  accountability,  and  being 
saved  by  the  grace  of  God,  and  damned  for  the 
glory  of  God,  have  occupied  the  mind  of  what  we 
call  the  civilized  world  for  many  centuries.  All 
these  questions  were  argued  pro  and  con  through 
Switzerland ;  all  of  them  in  Holland  for  centuries  ; 
in  Scotland  and  England  and  New  England,  and 
millions  of  people  are  still  busy  harmonizing  fore- 
ordination  and  free  will,  necessity  and  morality,  pre- 
destination and  accountability. 

Louis  XIV.  having  died,  the  Regent  took  posses- 
sion, and  then  the  prisons  were  opened.  The  Re- 
gent called  for  a  list  of  all  persons  then  in  the  prisons 


22  VOLTAIRE. 

sent  there  at  the  will  of  the  King.  He  found  that, 
as  to  many  prisoners,  nobody  knew  any  cause  why 
they  had  been  in  prison.  They  had  been  forgotten. 
Many  of  the  prisoners  did  not  know  themselves,  and 
could  not  guess  why  they  had  been  arrested.  One 
Italian  had  been  in  the  Bastile  thirty-three  years 
without  ever  knowing  why.  On  his  arrival  in  Paris, 
thirty-three  years  before,  he  was  arrested  and  sent 
to  prison.  He  had  grown  old.  He  had  survived 
his  family  and  friends.  When  the  rest  were  liberated 
he  asked  to  remain  where  he  was,  and  lived  there 
the  rest  of  his  life.  The  old  prisoners  were  par- 
doned ;  but  in  a  little  while  their  places  were  taken 
by  new  ones. 

At  this  time  Voltaire  was  not  interested  in  the 
great  world — knew  very  little  of  religion  or  of  gov- 
ernment. He  was  busy  writing  poetry,  busy  think- 
ing of  comedies  and  tragedies.  He  was  full  of  life. 
All  his  fancies  were  winged,  like  moths. 

He  was  charged  with  having  written  some  cutting 
epigrams.  He  was  exiled  to  Tulle,  three  hundred 
miles  away.  From  this  place  he  wrote  in  the  true 
vein — "  I  am  at  a  chateau,  a  place  that  would  be 
the  most  agreeable  in  the  world  if  I  had  not  been 
exiled  to  it,  and  where  there  is  nothing  wanting  for 


VOLTAIRE.  23 

my  perfect  happiness  except  the  liberty  of  leaving. 
It  would  be  delicious  to  remain,  if  I  only  were  al- 
lowed to  go." 

At  last  the  exile  was  allowed  to  return.  Again 
he  was  arrested  ;  this  time  sent  to  the  Bastile,  where 
he  remained  for  nearly  a  year.  While  in  prison 
he  changed  his  name  from  Francois- Marie  Arouet 
to  Voltaire,  and  by  that  name  he  has  since  been 
known. 

Voltaire,  as  full  of  life  as  summer  is  full  of  blos- 
soms, giving  his  ideas  upon  all  subjects  at  the  ex- 
pense of  prince  and  king,  was  exiled  to  England. 
From  sunny  France  he  took  his  way  to  the  mists 
and  fogs  of  Albion.  He  became  acquainted  with 
the  highest  and  the  best  in  Britain.  He  met  Pope, 
a  most  wonderful  verbal  mechanic,  a  maker  of  arti- 
ficial flowers,  very  much  like  natural  ones,  except 
that  they  lack  perfume  and  the  seeds  of  suggestion. 
He  made  the  acquaintance  of  Young,  who  wrote 
the  "  Night  Thoughts  ;  "  Young,  a  fine  old  hypo- 
crite with  a  virtuous  imagination,  a  gentleman  who 
electioneered  with  the  king's  mistress  that  he  might 
be  made  a  bishop.  He  became  acquainted  with 
Chesterfield — all  manners,  no  man  ;  with  Thompson, 
author  of  "  The  Seasons,"  who  loved  to  see  the  sun 


24  VOLTAIRE. 

rise  in  bed  and  visit  the  country  in  town  ;  with 
Swift,  whose  poisoned  arrows  were  then  festering  in 
the  flesh  of  Mr.  Bull  —  Swift,  as  wicked  as  he  was 
witty,  and' as  heartless  as  he  was  humorous — with 
Swift,  a  dean  and  a  devil  ;  with  Congreve,  whom 
Addison  thought  superior  to  Shakespeare,  and  who 
never  wrote  but  one  great  line,  "  The  cathedral 
looking' tranquillity." 


VOLTAIRE.  25 


III. 

THE  MORN  OF  MANHOOD. 

A  7OLTAIRE  began  to  think,  to  doubt,  to  inquire. 
He  studied  the  history  of  the  Church,  of  the  creed. 
He  found  that  the  religion  of  his  time  rested  on  the 
inspiration  of  the  scriptures  —  the  infallibility  of  the 
Church  —  the  dreams  of  insane  hermits  —  the  ab- 
surdities of  the  Fathers  —  the  mistakes  and  false- 
hoods of  saints  —  the  hysteria  of  nuns — the  cun- 
ning of  priests  and  the  stupidity  of  the  people.  He 
found  that  the  Emperor  Constantine,  who  lifted 
Christianity  into  power,  murdered  his  wife  Fausta 
and  his  eldest  son  Crispus,  the  same  year  that  he 
convened  the  Council  of  Nice,  to  decide  whether 
Christ  was  a  man  or  the  Son  of  God.  The  Council 
decided,  in  the  year  326,  that  Christ  was  consub- 
stantial  with  the  Father.  He  found  that  the  Church 
was  indebted  to  a  husband  who  assassinated  his 
wife  —  a  father  who  murdered  his  son,  for  settling 
the  vexed  question  of  the  divinity  of  the  Savior.  He 
found  that  Theodosius  called  a  council  at  Constanti- 


26  VOLTAIRE. 

nople  in  381,  by  which  it  was  decided  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  proceeded  from  the  Father  —  that  Theodosius, 
the  younger,  assembled  a  council  at  Ephesus  in  431, 
that  declared  the  Virgin  Mary  to  be  the  mother  of 
God  —  that  the  Emperor  Marcian  called  another 
council  at  Chalcedon  in  45 1,  that  decided  that 
Christ  had  two  wills  —  that  Pognatius  called  an- 
other in  680,  that  declared  that  Christ  had  two 
natures  to  go  with  his  two  wills  —  and  that  in  1274, 
at  the  council  of  Lyons,  the  important  fact  was  found 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  "  proceeded,"  not  only  from  the 
Father,  but  also  from  the  Son  at  the  same  time. 

So,  it  took  about  1,300  years  to  find  out  a  few 
things  that  had  been  revealed  by  an  infinite  God  to 
his  infallible  Church. 

Voltaire  found  that  this  insane  creed  had  filled  the 
world  with  cruelty  and  fear.  He  found  that  vest- 
ments were  more  sacred  than  virtues  —  that  images 
and  crosses — pieces  of  old  bones  and  bits  of  wood 
were  more  precious  than  the  rights  and  lives  of  men, 
and  that  the  keepers  of  these  relics  were  the  ene- 
mies of  the  human  race. 

With  all  the  energy  of  his  nature  —  with  every 
faculty  of  his  mind  —  he  attacked  this  ''Triumphant 
Beast." 


VOLTAIRE.  27 

Voltaire  was  the  apostle  of  common  sense.  He 
knew  that  there  could  have  been  no  primitive  or 
first  language  from  which  all  other  languages  had 
been  formed.  He  knew  that  every  language  had 
been  influenced  by  the  surroundings  of  the  people. 
He  knew  that  the  language  of  snow  and  ice  was  not 
the  language  of  palm  and  flower.  He  knew  also 
that  there  had  been  no  miracle  in  language.  He 
knew  that  it  was  impossible  that  the  story  of  the 
Tower  of  Babel  should  be  true.  He  knew  that 
everything  in  the  whole  world  had  been  natural. 
He  was  the  enemy  of  alchemy,  not  only  in  language 
but  in  science.  One  passage  from  him  is  enough  to 
show  his  philosophy  in  this  regard.  He  says  ;  "  To 
transmute  iron  into  gold,  two  things  are  necessary. 
First,  the  annihilation  of  the  iron  ;  second,  the  crea- 
tion of  gold." 

Voltaire  gave  us  the  philosophy  of  history. 

Voltaire  was  a  man  of  humor,  of  good  nature,  of 
cheerfulness.  He  despised  with  all  his  heart  the 
philosophy  of  Calvin,  the  creed  of  the  sombre,  of  the 
severe,  of  the  unnatural.  He  pitied  those  who 
needed  the  aid  of  religion  to  be  honest,  to  be  cheer- 
ful. He  had  the  courage  to  enjoy  the  present  and 
the  philosophy  to  bear  what  the  future  might  bring. 


28  VOLTAIRE. 

And  yet  for  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  the 
Christian  world  has  fought  this  man  and  has  maligned 
his  memory.  In  every  Christian  pulpit  his  name  has 
been  pronounced  with  scorn,  and  every  pulpit  has 
been  an  arsenal  of  slander.  He  is  one  man  of  whom 
no  rthodox  minister  has  ever  told  the  truth.  He 
has  been  denounced  equally  by  Catholics  and  Prot- 
estants. 

Priests  and  ministers,  bishops  and  exhorters,  pre- 
siding elders  and  popes  have  filled  the  world  with 
slanders,  with  calumnies  about  Voltaire.  I  am 
amazed  that  ministers  will  not  or  cannot  tell  the 
truth  about  an  enemy  of  the  Church.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  for  more  than  one  thousand  years,  almost 
every  pulpit  has  been  a  mint  in  which  slanders  have 
been  coined. 

Voltaire  made  up  his  mind  to  destroy  the  super- 
stition of  his  time. 

He  fought  with  every  weapon  that  genius  could 
devise  or  use.  He  was  the  greatest  of  all  caricatur- 
ists, and  he  used  this  wonderful  gift  without  mercy. 
For  pure  crystallized  wit,  he  had  no  equal.  The  art 
of  flattery  was  carried  by  him  to  the  height  of  an 
exact  science.  He  knew  and  practiced  every  sub- 
terfuge. He  fought  the  army  of  hypocrisy  and  pre- 
tense, the  army  of  faith  and  falsehood. 


VOLTAIRE.  29 

Voltaire  was  annoyed  by  the  meaner  and  baser 
spirits  of  his  time,  by  the  cringers  and  crawlers,  by 
the  fawners  and  pretenders,  by  those  who  wished  to 
gain  the  favor  of  priests,  the  patronage  of  nobles. 
Sometimes  he  allowed  himself  to  be  annoyed  by 
these  wretches  ;  sometimes  he  attacked  them.  And, 
but  for  these  attacks,  long  ago  they  would  have 
been  forgotten.  In  the  amber  of  his  genius  Voltaire 
preserved  these  insects,  these  tarantulas,  these 
scorpions. 

It  is  fashionable  to  say  that  he  was  not  profound. 
This  is  because  he  was  not  stupid.  In  the  presence 
of  absurdity  he  laughed,  and  was  called  irreverent. 
He  thought  God  would  not  damn  even  a  priest  for- 
ever —  this  was  regarded  as  blasphemy.  He  en- 
deavored to  prevent  Christians  from  murdering  each 
other,  and  did  what  he  could  to  civilize  the  disciples 
of  Christ.  Had  he  founded  a  sect,  obtained  control 
of  some  country,  and  burned  a  few  heretics  at  slow 
fires,  he  would  have  won  the  admiration,  respect  and 
love  of  the  Christian  world.  Had  he  only  pretended 
to  believe  all  the  fables  of  antiquity,  had  he  mum- 
bled Latin  prayers,  counted  beads,  crossed  himself, 
devoured  now  and  then  the  flesh  of  God,  and  carried 
fagots  to  the  feet  of  Philosophy  in  the  name  of 


VOLTAIRE. 

«  might  have  been  in  Heaven  this  moment, 
g  a  sight  of  the  damned. 

t  had  only  adopted  the  creed  of  his  time  —  if 
he  had  asserted  that  a  God  of  infinite  power  and 
mercy  had  created  millions  and  billions  of  human 
beings  to  suffer  eternal  pain,  and  all  for  the  sake  of 
his  glorious  justice  —  that  he  had  given  his  power  of 
attorney  to  a  cunning  and  cruel  Italian  Pope,  author- 
izing him  to  save  the  soul  of  his  mistress  and  send 
honest  wives  to  hell  —  if  he  had  given  to  the  nostrils 
of  this  God  the  odor  of  burning  flesh  —  the  incense 
of  the  fagot  —  if  he  had  filled  his  ears  with  the 
shrieks  of  the  tortured  —  the  music  of  the  rack,  he 
would  now  be  known  as  Saint  Voltaire. 

For  many  years  this  restless  man  filled  Europe 
with  the  product  of  his  brain.  Essays,  epigrams, 
epics,  comedies,  tragedies,  histories,  poems,  novels, 
representing  every  phase  and  every  faculty  of  the 
human  mind.  At  the  same  time  engrossed  in  busi- 
ness, full  of  speculation,  making  money  like  a  million- 
aire, busy  with  the  gossip  of  courts,  and  even  with 
the  scandals  of  priests.  At  the  same  time  alive  to 
all  the  discoveries  of  science  and  the  theories  of 
philosophers,  and  in  this  Babel  never  forgetting  for 
one  moment  to  assail  the  monster  of  superstition. 


VOLTAIRE.  3 1 

Sleeping  and  waking  he  hated  the  Church.  With 
the  eyes  of  Argus  he  watched,  and  with  the  arms  of 
Briareus  he  struck.  For  sixty  years  he  waged  con- 
tinuous and  unrelenting  war,  sometimes  in  the  open 
field,  sometimes  striking  from  the  hedges  of  oppor- 
tunity—  taking  care  during  all  this  time  to  remain 
independent  of  all  men.  He  was  in  the  highest 
sense  successful.  He  lived  like  a  prince,  became 
one  of  the  powers  of  Europe,  and  in  him,  for  the 
first  time,  literature  was  crowned. 

It  has  been  claimed  by  the  Christian  critics  that 
Voltaire  was  irreverent ;  that  he  examined  sacred 
things  without  solemnity  ;  that  he  refused  to  remove 
his  shoes  in  the  presence  of  the  Burning  Bush  ;  that 
he  smiled  at  the  geology  of  Moses,  the  astronomical 
ideas  of  Joshua,  and  that  the  biography  of  Jonah 
filled  him  with  laughter.  They  say  that  these 
stories,  these  sacred  impossibilities,  these  inspired 
falsehoods,  should  be  read  and  studied  with  a  believ- 
ing mind  in  humbleness  of  spirit ;  that  they  should 
be  examined  prayerfully,  asking  God  at  the  same 
time  to  give  us  strength  to  triumph  over  the  conclu- 
sions of  our  reason.  These  critics  imagine  that  a 
falsehood  can  be  old  enough  to  be  venerable,  and 
that  to  stand  covered  in  its  presence  is  the  act  of  an 


32  VOLTAIRE. 

irreverent  scoffer.  Voltaire  approached  the  mythol- 
ogy of  the  Jews  precisely  as  he  did  the  mythology 
of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  or  the  mythology  of  the 
Chinese  or  the  Iroquois  Indians.  There  is  nothing 
in  this  world  too  sacred  to  be  investigated,  to  be 
understood.  The  philosopher  does  not  hide.  Se- 
crecy is  not  the  friend  of  truth.  No  man  should  be 
reverent  at  the  expense  of  his  reason.  Nothing 
should  be  worshipped  until  the  reason  has  been 
convinced  that  it  is  worthy  of  worship. 

Against  all  miracles,  against  all  holy  superstition, 
against  sacred  mistakes,  he  shot  the  arrows  of  ridi- 
cule. 

These  arrows,  winged  by  fancy,  sharpened  by  wit, 
poisoned  by  truth,  always  reached  the  centre. 

It  is  claimed  by  many  that  anything,  the  best  and 
holiest,  can  be  ridiculed.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he 
who  attempts  to  ridicule  the  truth,  ridicules  himself. 
He  becomes  the  food  of  his  own  laughter. 

The  mind  of  man  is  many-sided.  Truth  must  be, 
and  is,  willing  to  be  tested  in  every  way,  tested  by 
all  the  senses. 

But  in  what  way  can  the  absurdity  of  the  "  real 
presence  "  be  answered,  except  by  banter,  by  rail- 
lery, by  ridicule,  by  persiflage  ?  How  are  you  going 


VOLTAIRE.  33 

to  convince  a  man  who  believes  that,  when  he 
swallows  the  sacred  wafer,  he  has  eaten  the  entire 
Trinity,  and  that  a  priest  drinking  a  drop  of  wine 
has  devoured  the  Infinite  ?  How  are  you  to  reason 
with  a  man  who  believes  that,  if  any  of  the  sacred 
wafers  are  left  over,  they  should  be  put  in  a  secure 
place,  so  that  mice  should  not  eat  God  ? 

What  effect  will  logic  have  upon  a  religious  gen- 
tleman who  firmly  believes  that  a  God  of  infinite 
compassion  sent  two  bears  to  tear  thirty  or  forty 
children  in  pieces  for  laughing  at  a  bald-headed 
prophet  ? 

How  are  such  people  to  be  answered  ?  How  can 
they  be  brought  to  a  sense  of  their  absurdity  ?  They 
must  feel  in  their  flesh  the  arrows  of  ridicule. 

So  Voltaire  has  been  called  a  mocker. 

What  did  he  mock  ?  He  mocked  kings  that  were 
unjust  ;  kings  who  cared  nothing  for  the  sufferings 
of  their  subjects.  He  mocked  the  titled  fools  of  his 
day.  He  mocked  the  corruption  of  courts  ;  the 
meanness,  the  tyranny  and  the  brutality  of  judges. 
He  mocked  the  absurd  and  cruel  laws,  the  barbarous 
customs.  He  mocked  popes  and  cardinals  and 
bishops  and  priests,  and  all  the  hypocrites  on  the 
earth.  He  mocked  historians  who  filled  their  books 


34  VOLTAIRE. 

with  lies,  and  philosophers  who  defended  supersti- 
tion. He  mocked  the  haters  of  liberty,  the  persecu- 
tors of  their  fellow-men.  He  mocked  the  arrogance, 
the  cruelty,  the  impudence,  and  the  unspeakable 
baseness  of  his  time. 

He  has  been  blamed  because  he  used  the  weapon 
of  ridicule. 

Hypocrisy  has  always  hated  laughter,  and  always 
will.  Absurdity  detests  humor,  and  stupidity  de- 
spises wit.  Voltaire  was  the  master  of  ridicule.  He 
ridiculed  the  absurd,  the  impossible.  He  ridiculed 
the  mythologies  and  the  miracles,  the  stupid  lives 
and  lies  of  the  saints.  He  found  pretense  and  men- 
dacity crowned  by  credulity.  He  found  the  igno- 
rant many  controlled  by  the  cunning  and  cruel  few. 
He  found  the  historian,  saturated  with  superstition, 
filling  his  volumes  with  the  details  of  the  impossible, 
and  he  found  the  scientists  satisfied  with  "  they  say." 

Voltaire  had  the  instinct  of  the  probable.  He 
knew  the  law  of  average,  the  sea  level  ;  he  had  the 
idea  of  proportion,  and  so  he  ridiculed  the  mental 
monstrosities  and  deformities  —  the  non  sequiturs  — 
of  his  day.  Aristotle  said  women  had  more  teeth 
than  men.  This  was  repeated  again  and  again  by 
the  Catholic  scientists  of  the  Eighteenth  Century. 


VOLTAIRE.  35 

Voltaire  counted  the  teeth.     The  rest  were  satisfied 
with  "  they  say." 

Voltaire  for  many  years,  in  spite  of  his  surround- 
ings, in  spite  of  almost  universal  tyranny  and  oppres- 
sion, was  a  believer  in  God  and  what  he  was  pleased 
to  call  the  religion  of  Nature.  He  attacked  the 
creed  of  his  time  because  it  was  dishonorable  to  his 
God.  He  thought  of  the  Deity  as  a  father,  as  the 
fountain  of  justice,  intelligence  and  mercy,  and  the 
creed  of  the  Catholic  Church  made  him  a  monster  of 
cruelty  and  stupidity.  He  attacked  the  Bible  with 
all  the  weapons  at  his  command.  He  assailed  its 
geology,  its  astronomy,  its  ideas  of  justice,  its  laws 
and  customs,  its  absurd  and  useless  miracles,  its 
foolish  wonders,  its  ignorance  on  all  subjects,  its  in- 
sane prophecies,  its  cruel  threats  and  its  extravagant 
promises. 

At  the  same  time  he  praised  the  God  of  naiure, 
the  God  who  gives  us  rain  and  light,  and  food  and 
flowers,  and  health  and  happiness  —  he  who  fills  the 
world  with  youth  and  beauty. 

Attacked  on  every  side,  he  fought  with  every 
weapon  that  wit,  logic,  reason,  scorn,  contempt, 
laughter,  pathos  and  indignation  could*  sharpen, 
form,  devise  or  use.  He  often  apologized,  and  the 


36  VOLTAIRE. 

apology  was  an  insult.  He  often  recanted,  and  the 
recantation  was  a  thousand  times  worse  than  the 
thing  recanted.  He  took  it  back  by  giving  more. 
In  the  name  of  eulogy  he  flayed  his  victim.  In  his 
praise  there  was  poison.  He  often  advanced  by  re- 
treating, and  asserted  by  retraction. 

He  did  not  intend  to  give  priests  the  satisfaction 
of  seeing  him  burn  or  suffer.  Upon  this  very  point 
of  recanting  he  wrote  : 

"They  say  I  must  retract.  Very  willingly.  I 
"  will  declare  that  Pascal  is  always  right.  That  if  St. 
"  Luke  and  St.  Mark  contradict  one  another,  it  is 
"  only  another  proof  of  the  truth  of  religion  to  those 
"  who  know  how  to  understand  such  things  ;  and 
"  that  another  lovely  proof  of  religion  is  that  it  is 
"  unintelligible.  I  will  even  avow  that  all  priests 
"  are  gentle  and  disinterested  ;  that  Jesuits  are  hon- 
"  est  people ;  that  monks  are  neither  proud  nor 
"  given  to  intrigue,  and  that  their  odor  is  agreeable  ; 
"  that  the  Holy  Inquisition  is  the  triumph  of  human- 
"  ity  and  tolerance.  In  a  word,  I  will  say  all  that 
"  may  be  desired  of  me,  provided  they  leave  me  in 
"  repose,  and  will  not  persecute  a  man  who  has  done 
"  harm  to  none." 

He  gave  the  best  years  of  his   wondrous   life  to 


VOLTAIRE.  37 

succor  the  oppressed,  to  shield  the  defenseless,  to 
reverse  infamous  decrees,  to  rescue  the  innocent, 
to  reform  the  laws  of  France,  to  do  away  with  tor- 
ture, to  soften  the  hearts  of  priests,  to  enlighten 
judges,  to  instruct  kings,  to  civilize  the  people,  and 
to  banish  from  the  heart  of  man  the  love  and  lust 
of  war. 

You  may  think  that  I  have  said  too  much  ;  that  I 
have  placed  this  man  too  high.  Let  me  tell  you 
what  Goethe,  the  great  German,  said  of  this  man  : 

"  If  you  wish  depth,  genius,  imagination,  taste, 
"  reason,  sensibility,  philosophy,  elevation,  original- 
"  ity,  nature,  intellect,  fancy,  rectitude,  facility,  flexi- 
"  bility,  precision,  art,  abundance,  variety,  fertility, 
"warmth,  magic,  charm,  grace,  force,  an  eagle  sweep 
"  of  vision,  vast  understanding,  instruction  rich,  tone 
"  excellent,  urbanity,  suavity,  delicacy,  correctness, 
"  purity,  clearness,  eloquence,  harmony,  brilliancy, 
"  rapidity,  gaiety,  pathos,  sublimity  and  universality, 
"  perfection  indeed,  behold  Voltaire." 

Even  Carlyle,  that  old  Scotch  terrier,  with  the 
growl  of  a  grizzly  bear,  who  attacked  shams,  as  I 
have  sometimes  thought,  because  he  hated  rivals, 
was  forced  to  admit  that  Voltaire  gave  the  death 
stab  to  modern  superstition  ! 


38  VOLTAIRE. 

It  is  the  duty  of  every  man  to  destroy  the  super- 
stitions of  his  time,  and  yet  there  are  thousands  of 
men  and  women,  fathers  and  mothers,  who  repudiate 
with  their  whole  hearts  the  creeds  of  superstition, 
and  still  allow  their  children  to  be  taught  these  lies. 
They  allow  their  imaginations  to  be  poisoned  with 
the  dogma  of  eternal  pain.  They  allow  arrogant 
and  ignorant  parsons,  meek  and  foolish  teachers,  to 
sow  the  seeds  of  barbarism  in  the  minds  of  their 
children  —  seeds  that  will  fill  their  lives  with  fear 
and  pain.  Nothing  can  be  more  important  to  a 
human  being  than  to  be  free  and  to  live  without  fear. 

It  is  far  better  to  be  a  mortal  free  man  than  an 
immortal  slave. 

Fathers  and  mothers  should  do  their  utmost  to 
make  their  children  free.  They  should  teach  them 
to  doubt,  to  investigate,  to  inquire,  and  every  father 
and  mother  should  know  that  by  the  cradle  of  every 
child,  as  by  the  cradle  of  the  infant  Hercules,  crawls 
the  serpent  of  superstition. 


VOLTAIRE.  39 


IV. 

THE  SCHEME  OF  NATURE. 

A  T  that  time  it  was  pretended  by  the  believers  in 
God  that  the  plan,  or  the  scheme  of  nature, 
was  not  cruel ;  that  the  lower  was  sacrificed  for  the 
benefit  of  the  higher  ;  that  while  life  lived  upon  life, 
while  animals  lived  upon  each  other,  and  while  man 
was  the  king  or  sovereign  of  all,  still  the  higher  lived 
upon  the  lower.  Consequently,  a  lower  life  was  sac- 
rificed that  a  higher  life  might  exist.  This  reasoning 
satisfied  many.  Yet  there  were  thousands  that 
could  not  see  why  the  lower  shoulcl  be  sacrificed,  or 
why  all  joy  should  be  born  of  pain.  But,  since  the 
construction  of  the  microscope,  since  man  has  been 
allowed  to  look  toward  the  infinitely  small,  as  well  as 
toward  the  infinitely  great,  he  finds  that  our  fathers 
were  mistaken  when  they  laid  down  the  proposition 
that  only  the  lower  life  was  sacrificed  for  the  sake  of 
the  higher. 

Now,  we  find  that  the  lives  of  all  visible  animals 
are  liable  to  be,  and  in  countless  cases  are,  destroyed 
by  a  far  lower  life  ;  that  man  himself  is  destroyed  by 


4<D  VOLTAIRE. 

the  microbes,  the  bacilli,  the  infinitesimal.  We  find 
that  for  the  sake  of  preserving  the  yellow  fever 
germs  millions  and  millions  have  died,  and  that 
whole  nations  have  been  decimated  for  the  sake  of 
the  little  beast  that  gives  us  the  cholera.  We  have 
also  found  that  there  are  animals,  call  them  what  you 
please,  that  live  on  the  substance  of  the  human 
heart,  others  that  prefer  the  lungs,  others  again  so 
delicate  in  their  palate  that  they  insist  on  devouring 
the  optic  nerve,  and  when  they  have  destroyed  the 
sight  of  one  eye  have  sense  enough  to  bore  through 
the  cartilage  of  the  nose  to  attack  the  other.  Thus 
we  find  the  other  side  of  this  proposition.  At  first 
sight  the  lower  seemed  to  be  sacrificed  for  the  sake 
of  the  higher,  but  on  closer  inspection  the  highest 
are  sacrificed  for  the  sake  of  the  lowest. 

Voltaire  was,  for  a  long  time,  a  believer  in  the 
optimism  of  Pope  — "  All  partial  evil,  universal 
good."  This  is  a  very  fine  philosophy  for  the  fortu- 
nate. It  suits  the  rich.  It  is  flattering  to  kings  and 
priests.  It  sounds  well.  It  is  a  fine  stone  to  throw 
at  a  beggar.  It  enables  you  to  bear  with  great  for- 
titude the  misfortunes  of  others. 

It  is  not  the  philosophy  for  those  who  suffer  —  for 
industry  clothed  in  rags,  for  patriotism  in  prison,  for 


VOLTAIRE.  41 

honesty  in  want,  or  for  virtuous  outcasts.  It  is  a 
philosophy  of  a  class,  of  a  few,  and  of  the  few  who 
are  fortunate  ;  and,  when  misfortune  overtakes  them, 
this  philosophy  fades  and  withers. 

In  1755  came  the  earthquake  at  Lisbon.  This 
frightful  disaster  became  an  immense  interrogation. 
The  optimist  was  compelled  to  ask,  "  What  was  my 
God  doing?  Why  did  the  Universal  Father  crush 
to  shapelessness  thousands  of  his  poor  children,  even 
at  the  moment  when  they  were  upon  their  knees  re- 
turning thanks  to  him  ?" 

What  could  be  done  with  this  horror  ?  If  earth- 
quake there  must  be,  why  did  it  not  occur  in  some 
uninhabited  desert,  on  some  wide  waste  of  sea? 
This  frightful  fact  changed  the  theology  of  Voltaire. 
He  became  convinced  that  this  is  not  the  best  pos- 
sible of  all  worlds.  He  became  convinced  that  evil 
is  evil  here,  now,  and  forever. 

The  Theist  was  silent.  The  earthquake  denied 
the  existence  of  God. 


42  VOLTAIRE. 


V. 

His  HUMANITY. 

r"POU LOUSE  was  a  favored  town.  It  was  rich  in 
*  relics.  The  people  were  as  ignorant  as  wooden 
images,  but  they  had  in  their  possession  the  dried 
bodies  of  seven  apostles — the  bones  of  many  of  the 
infants  slain  by  Herod  —  part  of  a  dress  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  and  lots  of  skulls  and  skeletons  of  the 
infallible  idiots  known  as  saints. 

In  this  city  the  people  celebrated  every  year  with 
great  joy  two  holy  events  :  The  expulsion  of  the 
Huguenots,  and  the  blessed  massacre  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew. The  citizens  of  Toulouse  had  been  educated 
and  civilized  by  the  church. 

A  few  Protestants,  mild  because  in  the  minority, 
lived  among  these  jackals  and  tigers. 

One  of  these  Protestants  was  Jean  Calas  —  a  small 
dealer  in  dry  goods.  For  forty  years  he  had  been 
in  this  business,  and  his  character  was  without  a 
stain.  He  was  honest,  kind  and  agreeable.  He 


VOLTAIRE.  43 

had  a  wife  and  six  children — four  sons  and  two 
daughters.  One  of  the  sons  became  a  Catholic. 
The  eldest  son,  Marc  Antoine,  disliked  his  father's 
business  and  studied  law.  He  could  not  be  allowed 
to  practice  unless  he  became  a  Catholic.  He  tried 
to  get  his  license  by  concealing  that  he  was  a  Prot- 
estant. He  was  discovered  — .grew  morose.  Finally 
he  became  discouraged  and  committed  suicide,  by 
hanging  himself  one  evening  in  his  father's  store. 

The  bigots  of  Toulouse  started  the  story  that  his 
parents  had  killed  him  to  prevent  his  becoming  a 
Catholic. 

On  this  frightful  charge  the  father,  mother,  one 
son,  a  servant,  and  one  guest  at  their  house,  were 
arrested. 

The  dead  son  was  considered  a  martyr,  the  church 
taking  possession  of  the  body. 

This  happened  in  1761. 

There  was  what  was  called  a  trial.  There  was  no 
evidence,  not  the  slightest,  except  hearsay.  All  the 
facts  were  in  favor  of  the  accused. 

The  united  strength  of  the  defendants  could  not 
have  done  the  deed. 

Jean  Calas  was  doomed  to  torture  and  to  death 
upon  the  wheel.  This  was  on  the  9th  of  March, 


44  VOLTAIRE. 

1762,  and  the  sentence  was  to  be  carried  out  the 
next  day. 

On  the  morning  of  the  loth  the  father  was  taken 
to  the  torture  room.  The  executioner  and  his 
assistants  were  sworn  on  the  cross  to  administer  the 
torture  according  to  the  judgment  of  the  Court. 

They  bound  him  by  the  wrists  to  an  iron  ring  in 
the  stone  wall  four  feet  from  the  ground,  and  his  feet 
to  another  ring  in  the  floor.  Then  they  shortened 
the  ropes  and  chains  until  every  joint  in  his  arms 
and  legs  was  dislocated.  Then  he  was  questioned. 
He  declared  that  he  was  innocent.  Then  the  ropes 
were  again  shortened  until  life  fluttered  in  the  torn 
body  ;  but  he  remained  firm. 

This  was  called  the  question  ordinaire. 

Again  the  magistrates  exhorted  the  victim  to  con- 
fess, and  again  he  refused,  saying  that  there  was 
nothing  to  confess. 

Then  came  the  question  extraordinaire. 

Into  the  mouth  of  the  victim  was  placed  a  horn 
holding  three  pints  of  water.  In  this  way  thirty 
pints  of  water  were  forced  into  the  body  of  the  suf- 
ferer. The  pain  was  beyond  description,  and  yet 
Jean  Galas  remained  firm. 

He  was  then   carried  to  the  scaffold  in  a  tumbril. 


VOLTAIRE.  45 

He  was  bound  to  a  wooden  cross  that  lay  on  the 
scaffold.  The  executioner  then  took  a  bar  of  iron, 
broke  each  leg  and  each  arm  in  two  places,  striking 
eleven  blows  in  all.  He  was  then  Jeft  to  die  if  he 
could.  He  lived  for  two  hours,  declaring  his  inno- 
cence to  the  last.  He  was  slow  to  die,  and  so  the 
executioner  strangled  him.  Then  his  poor  lacerated, 
bleeding  and  broken  body  was  chained  to  a  stake 
and  burned. 

All  this  was  a  spectacle  —  a  festival  for  the 
savages  of  Toulouse.  What  would  they  have  done 
if  their  hearts  had  not  been  softened  by  the  glad 
tidings  of  great  joy  —  peace  on  earth  and  good  will 
to  men. 

But  this  was  not  all.  The  property  of  the  family 
was  confiscated  ;  the  son  was  released  on  condition 
that  he  become  a  Catholic  ;  the  servant  if  she  would 
enter  a  convent.  The  two  daughters  were  con- 
signed to  a  convent,  and  the  heart-broken  widow 
was  allowed  to  wander  where  she  would. 

Voltaire  heard  of  this  case.  In  a  moment  his  soul 
was  on  fire.  He  took  one  of  the  sons  under  his 
roof.  He  wrote  a  history  of  the  case.  He  corre- 
sponded with  kings  and  queens,  with  chancellors 
and  lawyers.  If  money  was  needed,  he  advanced 


46  VOLTAIRE. 

it.  For  years  he  filled  Europe  with  the  echoes  of 
the  groans  of  Jean  Calas.  He  succeeded.  The 
horrible  judgment  was  annulled  —  the  poor  victim 
declared  innocent  and  thousands  of  dollars  raised  to 
support  the  mother  and  family. 
This  was  the  work  of  Voltaire. 


THE  SIRVEN    FAMILY. 

Sirven,  a  Protestant,  lived  in  Languedoc  with  his 
wife  and  three  daughters.  The  housekeeper  of  the 
bishop  wanted  to  make  one  of  the  daughters  a 
Catholic. 

The  law  allowed  the  bishop  to  take  the  child  of 
Protestants  from  their  parents  for  the  sake  of  its 
soul.  This  little  girl  was  so  taken  and  placed  in  a 
convent.  She  ran  away  and  came  back  to  her 
parents.  Her  poor  little  body  was  covered  with  the 
marks  of  the  convent  whip. 

"  Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me." 

The  child  was  out  of  her  mind  —  suddenly  she 
disappeared,  and  a  few  days  after  her  little  body  was 
found  in  a  well,  three  miles  from  home. 


VOLTAIRE.  47 

The  cry  was  raised  that  her  folks  had  murdered 
her  to  keep  her  from  becoming  a  Catholic. 

This  happened  only  a  little  way  from  the  Christian 
City  of  Toulouse  while  Jean  Calas  was  in  prison. 
The  Sirvens  knew  that  a  trial  would  end  in  convic- 
tion. They  fled.  In  their  absence  they  were  con- 
victed, their  property  confiscated.  The  parents 
sentenced  to  die  by  the  hangman,  the  daughters  to 
be  under  the  gallows  during  the  execution  of  their 
mother,  and  then  to  be  exiled. 

The  family  fled  in  the  midst  of  winter  ;  the  mar- 
ried daughter  gave  birth  to  a  child  in  the  snows  of 
the  Alps  ;  the  mother  died,  and,  at  last  reaching 
Switzerland,  the  father  found  himself  without  means 
of  support. 

They  went  to  Voltaire.  He  espoused  their  cause. 
He  took  care  of  them,  gave  them  the  means  to  live, 
and  labored  to  annul  the  sentence  that  had  been 
pronounced  against  them  for  nine  long  and  weary 
years.  He  appealed  to  kings  for  money,  to  Catha- 
rine II.  of  Russia,  and  to  hundreds  of  others.  He 
was  successful.  He  said  of  this  case  :  The  Sirvens 
were  tried  and  condemned  in  two  hours  in  January, 
1762,  and  now  in  January,  1772,  after  ten  years  of 
effort,  they  have  been  restored  to  their  rights. 


48  VOLTAIRE. 

This  was  the  work  of  Voltaire.     Why  should  the 
worshippers  of  God  hate  the  lovers  of  men  ? 


THE    ESPENASSE    CASE. 

Espenasse  was  a  Protestant,  of  good  estate.  In 
1 740  he  received  into  his  house  a  Protestant  clergy- 
man, to  whom  he  gave  supper  and  lodging. 

In  a  country  where  priests  repeated  the  parable  of 
the  "  Good  Samaritan,"  this  was  a  crime. 

For  this  crime  Espenasse  was  tried,  convicted  and 
sentenced  to  the  galleys  for  life. 

When  he  had  been  imprisoned  for  twenty-three 
years  his  case  came  to  the  knowledge  of  Voltaire, 
and  he  was,  through  the  efforts  of  Voltaire,  released 
and  restored  to  his  family. 

This  was  the  work  of  Voltaire.  There  is  not  time 
to  tell  of  the  case  of  General  Lally,  of  the  English 
General  Byng,  of  the  niece  of  Corneille,  of  the  Jesuit 
Adam,  of  the  writers,  dramatists,  actors,  widows  and 
orphans,  for  whose  benefit  he  gave  his  influence,  his 
money  and  his  time.  But  I  will  tell  another  case  : 


VOLTAIRE.  49 

In  1765,  at  the  town  of  Abbeville,  an  old  wood- 
en cross  on  a  bridge  had  been  mutilated — whittled 
with  a  knife  —  a  terrible  crime.  Sticks,  when 
crossing  each  other,  were  far  more  sacred  than 
flesh  and  blood.  Two  young  men  were  suspect- 
ed—  the  Chevalier  de  la  Barre  and  D'Etallonde. 
D'Etallonde  fled  to  Prussia  and  enlisted  as  a  com- 
mon soldier. 

La  Barre  remained  and  stood  his  trial. 

He  was  convicted  without  the  slightest  evidence, 
and  he  and  D'Etallonde  were  both  sentenced  : 

First,  to  endure  the  torture,  ordinary  and  extra- 
ordinary. 

Second,  to  have  their  tongues  torn  out  by  the 
roots  with  pincers  of  iron. 

Third,  to  have  their  right  hands  cut  off  at  the 
door  of  the  church. 

Fourth,  to  be  bound  to  stakes  by  chains  of  iron 
and  burned  to  death  by  a  slow  fire. 

"  Forgive  us  our  trespasses  as  we  forgive  trios 
who  trespass  against  us." 

Remembering  this,  the  Judges  mitigated  the  sen- 
tence by  providing  that  their  heads  should  be  cut  off 
before  their  bodies  were  given  to  the  flames. 

The   case   was   appealed    to    Paris ;    heard    by   a 


5o  VOLTAIRE. 

Court  composed  of  twenty-five  Judges,  learned  in 
the  law,  and  the  judgment  was  confirmed. 

The  sentence  was  carried  out  on  the  first  day  of 
July,  1766. 

When  Voltaire  heard  of  this  judicial  infamy  he 
made  up  his  mind  to  abandon  France.  He  wished 
to  leave  forever  a  country  where  such  cruelties  were 
possible. 

He  wrote  a  pamphlet,  giving  the  history  of  the 
case. 

He  ascertained  the  whereabouts  of  D'Etallonde, 
wrote  in  his  behalf  to  the  King  of  Prussia  ;  got  him 
released  from  the  Army  ;  took  him  to  his  own 
house  ;  kept  him  for  a  year  and  a  half ;  saw  that  he 
was  instructed  in  drawing,  mathematics,  engineer- 
ing, and  had  at  last  the  happiness  of  seeing  him  a 
captain  of  engineers  in  the  army  of  Frederick  the 
Great. 

Such  a  man  was  Voltaire.  He  was  the  champion 
of  the  oppressed  and  the  helpless.  He  was  the 
Caesar  to  whom  the  victims  of  Church  and  State  ap- 
pealed. He  stood  for  the  intellect  and  heart  of  his 
time. 

And  yet  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  those  who 
love  their  enemies  have  exhausted  the  vocabulary 


VOLTAIRE.  '  5  I 

of  hate,  the  ingenuity  of  malice  and  mendacity,  in 
their  efforts  to  save  their  stupid  creeds  from  the 
genius  of  Voltaire. 

From  a  great  height  he  surveyed  the  world.  His 
horizon  was  large.  He  had  some  vices — these  he 
shared  in  common  with  priests  —  his  virtues  were 
his  own. 

He  was  in  favor  of  universal  education  —  of  the 
development  of  the  brain.  The  church  despised 
him.  He  wished  to  put  the  knowledge  of  the  whole 
world  within  the  reach  of  all.  Every  priest  was  his 
enemy.  He  wished  to  drive  from  the  gate  of  Eden 
the  cherubim  of  superstition,  so  that  the  children  of 
Adam  might  return  and  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree 
of  knowledge.  The  church  opposed  this  because  it 
had  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  ignorance  for  sale. 

He  was  one  of  the  foremost  friends  of  the  Ency- 
clopedia— of  Diderot,  and  did  all  in  his  power  to 
give  information  to  all.  So  far  as  principles  were 
concerned,  he  was  the  greatest  lawyer  of  his  time. 
I  do  not  mean  that  he  knew  the  terms  and  decisions, 
but  that  he  clearly  perceived  not  only  what  the  law 
should  be,  but  its  application  and  administration. 
He  understood  the  philosophy  of  evidence,  the  dif- 
ference between  suspicion  and  proof,  between  belief 


52  VOLTAIRE. 

and  knowledge,  and  he  did  more  to  reform  the  laws 
of  the  kingdom  and  the  abuses  at  Courts  than  all  the 

o 

lawyers  and  statesmen  of  his  time. 

At  school,  he  read  and  studied  the  works  of 
Cicero — the  lord  of  language  —  probably  the  great- 
est orator  that  has  uttered  speech,  and  the  words  of 
the  Roman  remained  in  his  brain.  He  became,  in 
spite  of  the  spirit  of  caste,  a  believer  in  the  equality 
of  men.  He  said  : 

"  Men  are  born  equal." 

"  Let  us  respect  virtue  and  merit." 

"  Let  us  have  it  in  the  heart  that  men  are  equal." 

He  was  an  abolitionist — the  enemy  of  slavery  in 
all  its  forms.  He  did  not  think  that  the  color  of 
one  man  gave  him  the  right  to  steal  from  another 
man  on  account  of  that  man's  color.  He  was  the 
friend  of  serf  and  peasant,  and  did  what  he  could  to 
protect  animals,  wives  and  children  from  the  fury  of 
those  who  loved  their  neighbors  as  themselves. 

It  was  Voltaire  who  sowed  the  seeds  of  liberty  in 
the  heart  and  brain  of  Franklin,  of  Jefferson  and 
Thomas  Paine. 

Puffendorf  had  taken  the  ground  that  slavery 
was,  in  part,  founded  on  contract. 

Voltaire  said  :  "  Show  me  the  contract,  and  if  it  is 


VOLTAIRE.  53 

signed  by  the  party  to  be  the  slave,  I  may  believe 
you." 

He  thought  it  absurd  that  God  should  drown  the 
fathers,  and  then  come  and  die  for  the  children. 
This  is  as  good  as  the  remark  of  Diderot :  "  If 
Christ  had  the  power  to  defend  himself  from  the 
Jews  and  refused  to  use  it,  he  was  guilty  of  suicide." 

He  had  sense  enough  to  know  that  the  flame  of 
the  fagot  does  not  enlighten  the  mind.  He  hated 
the  cruel  and  pitied  the  victims  of  Church  and  State. 
He  was  the  friend  of  the  unfortunate  —  the  helper  of 
the  striving.  He  laughed  at  the  pomp  of  kings — 
the  pretensions  of  priests.  He  was  a  believer  in  the 
natural  and  abhorred  with  all  his  heart  the  miracu- 
lous and  absurd. 

Voltaire  was  not  a  saint.  He  was  educated  by 
the  Jesuits.  He  was  never  troubled  about  the  salva- 
tion of  his  soul.  All  the  theological  disputes  ex- 
cited his  laughter,  the  creeds  his  pity,  and  the 
conduct  of  bigots  his  contempt.  He  was  much 
better  than  a  saint. 

Most  of  the  Christians  in  his  day  kept  their  re- 
ligion not  for  every  day  use  but  for  disaster,  as  ships 
carry  life  boats  to  be  used  only  in  the  stress  of 
storm. 


54  VOLTAIRE. 

Voltaire  believed  in  the  religion  of  humanity — of 
good  and  generous  deeds.  For  many  centuries  the 
church  had  painted  virtue  so  ugly,  sour  and  cold, 
that  vice  was  regarded  as  beautiful.  Voltaire  taught 
the  beauty  of  the  useful,  the  hatefulness  and  hideous- 
ness  of  superstition. 

He  was  not  the  greatest  of  poets,  or  of  dramatists, 
but  he  was  the  greatest  man  of  his  time,  the  greatest 
friend  of  freedom  and  the  deadliest  foe  of  supersti- 
tion. 

He  did  more  to  break  the  chains  of  superstition — 
to  drive  the  phantoms  of  fear  from  the  heart  and 
brain,  to  destroy  the  authority  of  the  church  and  to 
give  liberty  to  the  world  than  any  other  of  the  sons 
of  men.  In  the  highest,  the  holiest  sense  he  was  the 
most  profoundly  religious  man  of  his  time. 


VOLTAIRE.  55 


VI. 

THE  RETURN. 

A  FTER  an  exile  of  twenty-seven  years,  occupying 
-**  during  all  that  time  a  first  place  in  the  civil- 
ized world,  Voltaire  returned  to  Paris.  His  journey 
was  a  triumphal  march.  He  was  received  as  a  con- 
queror. The  Academy,  the  Immortals,  came  to 
meet  him  —  a  compliment  that  had  never  been  paid 
to  royalty.  His  tragedy  of  "  Irene  "  was  performed. 
At  the  theatre  he  was  crowned  with  laurel,  covered 
with  flowers  ;  he  was  intoxicated  with  perfume  and 
with  incense  of  worship.  He  was  the  supreme 
French  poet,  standing  above  them  all.  Among  the 
literary  men  of  the  world  he  stood  first — a  monarch 
by  the  divine  right  of  genius.  There  were  three 
mighty  forces  in  France — the  throne,  the  altar  and 
Voltaire. 

The  king  was  the  enemy  of  Voltaire.  The  Court 
could  have  nothing  to  do  with  him.  The  Church, 
malign  and  morose,  was  waiting  for  her  revenge,  and 


56  VOLTAIRE. 

yet,  such  was  the  reputation  of  this  man — such  the 
hold  he  had  upon  the  people — that  he  became,  in 
spite  of  Throne,  in  spite  of  Church,  the  idol  of 
France. 

He  was  an  old  man  of  eighty-four.  He  had  been 
surrounded  with  the  comforts,  the  luxuries  of  life. 
He  was  a  man  of  great  wealth,  the  richest  writer 
that  the  world  had  known.  Among  the  literary  men 
of  the  earth  he  stood  first.  He  was  an  intellectual 
king  —  one  who  had  built  his  own  throne  and 
had  woven  the  purple  of  his  own  power.  He  was  a 
man  of  genius.  The  Catholic  God  had  allowed  him 
the  appearance  of  success.  His  last  years  were  filled 
with  the  intoxication  of  flattery  —  of  almost  worship. 
He  stood  at  the  summit  of  his  age. 

The  priests  became  anxious.  They  began  to  fear 
that  God  would  forget,  in  a  multiplicity  of  business, 
to  make  a  terrible  example  of  Voltaire. 

Towards  the  last  of  May,  1778,  it  was  whispered 
"n  Paris  that  Voltaire  was  dying.  Upon  the  fences 
of  expectation  gathered  the  unclean  birds  of  super- 
stition, impatiently  waiting  for  their  prey. 

"  Two  days  before  his  death,  his  nephew  went  to 
seek  the  Cure"  of  Saint  Sulpice  and  the  Abbe  Guatier, 
and  brought  them  into  his  uncle's  sick  chamber. 


VOLTAIRE.  57 

'Ah,  well ! '  said  Voltaire,  '  give  them  my  compliments 
and  my  thanks.'  The  Abbe  spoke  some  words  to 
him,  exhorting  him  to  patience.  The  Cure  of  Saint 
Sulpice  then  came  forward,  having  announced  him- 
self, and  asked  of  Voltaire,  elevating  his  voice,  if  he 
acknowledged  the  divinity  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
The  sick  man  pushed  one  of  his  hands  against  the 
Cure's  coif,  shoving  him  back  and  cried,  turning 
abruptly  to  the  other  side,  '  Let  me  die  in  peace.' 
The  Cure  seemingly  considered  his  person  soiled 
and  his  coif  dishonored  by  the  touch  of  a  philoso- 
pher. He  made  the  nurse  give  him  a  little  brushing 
and  went  out  with  the  Abbe  Guatier." 

He  expired,  says  Wagniere,  on  the  3Oth  of  May, 
1778,  at  about  a  quarter-past  eleven  at  night,  with 
the  most  perfect  tranquillity.  A  few  moments  before 
his  last  breath  he  took  the  hand  of  Morand,  his  valet 
de  chambre,  who  was  watching  by  him,  pressed  it, 
and  said  :  "Adieu,  my  dear  Morand,  I  am  gone." 
These  were  his  last  words.  Like  a  peaceful  river 
with  green  and  shaded  banks,  he  flowed  without  a 
murmur  into  the  waveless  sea,  where  life  is  rest. 

From  this  death,  so  simple  and  serene,  so  kind,  so 
philosophic  and  tender,  so  natural  and  peaceful  ; 
from  these  words,  so  utterly  destitute  of  cant  or 


58  VOLTAIRE. 

dramatic  touch,  all  the  frightful  pictures,  all  the 
despairing  utterances,  have  been  drawn  and  made. 
From  these  materials,  and  from  these  alone,  or 
rather,  in  spite  of  these  facts,  have  been  constructed 
by  priests  and  clergymen  and  their  dupes  all  the 
shameless  lies  about  the  death  of  this  great  and 
wonderful  man.  A  man,  compared  with  whom  all 
of  his  calumniators,  dead  and  living,  were,  and  are, 
but  dust  and  vermin. 

Let  us  be  honest.  Did  all  the  priests  of  Rome  in- 
crease the  mental  wealth  of  man  as  much  as  Bruno  ? 
Did  all  the  priests  of  France  do  as  great  a  work  for 
the  civilization  of  the  world  as  Voltaire  or  Diderot  ? 
Did  all  the  ministers  of  Scotland  add  as  much  to  the 
sum  of  human  knowledge  as  David  Hume  ?  Have 
all  the  clergymen,  monks,  friars,  ministers,  priests, 
bishops,  cardinals  and  popes,  from  the  day  of 
Pentecost  to  the  last  election,  done  as  much  for 
human  liberty  as  Thomas  Paine  ? 

What  would  the  world  be  if  infidels  had  never 
been  ? 

The  Infidels  have  been  the  brave  and  thoughtful 
men  ;  the  flower  of  all  the  world  ;  the  pioneers  and 
heralds  of  the  blessed  day  of  liberty  and  love  ;  the 
generous  spirits  of  the  unworthy  past ;  the  seers  and 


VOLTAIRE.  69 

prophets  of  our  race  ;  the  great  chivalric  souls, 
proud  victors  on  the  battlefields  of  thought,  the  cred- 
itors of  all  the  years  to  be. 

Why  should  it  be  taken  for  granted  that  the  men 
who  devoted  their  lives  to  the  liberation  of  their 
fellow-men  should  have  been  hissed  at  in  the  hour  of 
death  by  the  snakes  of  conscience,  while  men  who 
defended  slavery — practiced  polygamy — justified  the 
stealing  of  babes  from  the  breasts  of  mothers,  and 
lashed  the  naked  back  of  unpaid  labor,  are  supposed 
to  have  passed  smilingly  from  earth  to  the  embraces 
of  the  angels  ?  Why  should  we  think  that  the  brave 
thinkers,  the  investigators, the  honest  men,  must  have 
left  the  crumbling  shore  of  time  in  dread  and  fear, 
while  the  instigators  of  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew ;  the  inventors  and  users  of  thumb-screws,  of 
iron  boots  and  racks  ;  the  burners  and  tearers  of 
human  flesh  ;  the  stealers,  the  whippers  and  the  en- 
slavers of  men  ;  the  buyers  and  beaters  of  maidens, 
mothers  and  babes  ;  the  founders  of  the  Inquisition  ; 
the  makers  of  chains  ;  the  builders  of  dungeons  ;  the 
calumniators  of  the  living ;  the  slanderers  of  the 
dead,  and  even  the  murderers  of  Jesus  Christ,  all 
died  in  the  odor  of  sanctity,  with  white,  forgiven 
hands  folded  upon  the  breasts  of  peace,  while  the 


60  VOLTAIRE. 

destroyers  of  prejudice,  the  apostles  of  humanity,  the 
soldiers  of  liberty,  the  breakers  of  fetters,  the  crea- 
tors of  light,  died  surrounded  by  the  fierce  fiends  of 
God? 

In  those  days  the  philosophers — that  is  to  say,  the 
thinkers — were  not  buried  in  holy  ground.  It  was 
feared  that  their  principles  might  contaminate  the 
ashes  of  the  just.  And  they  also  feared  that  on  the 
morning  of  the  Resurrection  they  might,  in  a  mo- 
ment of  confusion,  slip  into  heaven.  Some  were 
burned,  and  their  ashes  scattered  ;  and  the  bodies  of 
some  were  thrown  naked  to  beasts,  and  others  buried 
in  unholy  earth. 

Voltaire  knew  the  history  of  Adrienne  Le 
Couvreur,  a  beautiful  actress,  denied  burial. 

After  all,  we  do  feel  an  interest  in  what  is  to  be- 
come of  our  bodies.  There  is  a  modesty  that  be- 
longs to  death.  Upon  this  subject  Voltaire  was 
infinitely  sensitive.  It  was  that  he  might  be  buried 
that  he  went  through  the  farce  of  confession,  of  ab- 
solution, and  of  the  last  sacrament.  The  priests 
knew  that  he  was  not  in  earnest,  and  Voltaire  knew 
that  they  would  not  allow  him  to  be  buried  in  any 
of  the  cemeteries  of  Paris. 

His  death  was  kept  a  secret.     The  Abbe  Mignot 


VOLTAIRE.  6 1 

made  arrangements  for  the  burial  at  Romilli-on-the- 
Seine,  more  than  100  miles  from  Paris.  On  Sunday 
evening,  on  the  last  day  of  May,  1778,  the  body  of 
Voltaire,  clad  in  a  dressing  gown,  clothed  to  re- 
semble an  invalid,  posed  to  simulate  life,  was  placed 
in  a  carriage  ;  at  its  side,  a  servant,  whose  business 
it  was  to  keep  it  in  position.  To  this  carriage  were 
attached  six  horses,  so  that  people  might  think  a 
great  lord  was  going  to  his  estates.  Another 
carriage  followed,  in  which  were  a  grand  nephew 
and  two  cousins  of  Voltaire.  All  night  they  trav- 
eled, and  on  the  following  day  arrived  at  the  court- 
yard of  the  Abbey.  The  necessary  papers  were 
shown,  the  mass  was  performed  in  the  presence  of 
the  body,  and  Voltaire  found  burial.  A  few  mo- 
ments afterwards,  the  Prior,  who  "  for  charity  had 
given  a  little  earth,"  received  from  his  Bishop  a 
menacing  letter  forbidding  the  burial  of  Voltaire.  It 
was  too  late. 

Voltaire  was  dead.  The  foundations  of  State  and 
Throne  had  been  sapped.  The  people  were  becom- 
ing acquainted  with  the  real  kings  and  with  the  act- 
ual priests.  Unknown  men  born  in  misery  and  want, 
men  whose  fathers  and  mothers  had  been  pavement 
for  the  rich,  were  rising  towards  the  light,  and  their 


62  VOLTAIRE. 

shadowy  faces  were  emerging  from  darkness.  Labor 
and  thought  became  friends.  That  is,  the  gutter 
and  the  attic  fraternized.  The  monsters  of  the  Night 
and  the  angels  of  the  Dawn — the  first  thinking  of 
revenge,  and  the  others  dreaming  of  equality,  liberty 
and  fraternity. 


VOLTAIRE.  63 


VII. 

THE  DEATH-BED  ARGUMENT. 

A  LL  kinds  of  criminals,  except  infidels,  meet 
^^  death  with  reasonable  serenity.  As  a  rule, 
there  is  nothing  in  the  death  of  a  pirate  to  cast  any 
discredit  on  his  profession.  The  murderer  upon  the 
scaffold,  with  a  priest  on  either  side,  smilingly  ex- 
horts the  multitude  to  meet  him  in  heaven. .  The 
man  who  has  succeeded  in  making  his  home  a  hell, 
meets  death  without  a  quiver,  provided  he  has  never 
expressed  any  doubt  as  to  the  divinity  of  Christ,  or 
the  eternal  "  procession  ''  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The 
king  who  has  waged  cruel  and  useless  war,  who  has 
filled  countries  with  widows  and  fatherless  children, 
with  the  maimed  and  diseased,  and  who  has  suc- 
ceeded in  offering  to  the  Moloch  of  ambition  the 
best  and  bravest  of  his  subjects,  dies  like  a  saint. 

All  the  believing  kings  are  in  heaven — all  the 
doubting  philosophers  in  perditions  All  the  perse- 
cutors sleep  in  peace,  and  the  ashes  of  those  who 


64  VOLTAIRE. 

burned  their  brothers,  sleep  in  consecrated  ground. 
Libraries  could  hardly  contain  the  names  of  the 
Christian  wretches  who  have  filled  the  world  with 
violence  and  death  in  defence  of  book  and  creed, 
and  yet  they  all  died  the  death  of  the  righteous,  and 
no  priest,  no  minister,  describes  the  agony  and  fear, 
the  remorse  and  horror  with  which  their  guilty  souls 
were  filled  in  the  last  moments  of  their  lives.  These 
men  had  never  doubted  —  they  had  never  thought 
— they  accepted  the  creed  as  they  did  the  fashion  of 
their  clothes.  They  were  not  infidels,  they  could 
not  be  —  they  had  been  baptized,  they  had  not 
denied  the  divinity  —  of  Christ  —  they  had  partaken 
of  the  "  last  supper."  They  respected  priests  — 
they  admitted  that  Christ  had  two  natures  and  the 
same  number  of  wills  ;  they  admitted  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  had  "  proceeded,"  and  that,  according  to  the 
multiplication  table  of  heaven,  once  one  is  three,  and 
three  times  one  is  one,  and  these  things  put  pillows 
beneath  their  heads  and  covered  them  with  the 
drapery  of  peace. 

That,  while  kings  and  priests  did  nothing  worse 
than  to  make  their  fellows  wretched,  that  so  long  as 
they  only  butchered  and  burnt  the  innocent  and 
helpless,  God  would  maintain  the  strictest  neutrality  ; 


VOLTAIRE.  65 

but,  when  some  honest  man,  some  great  and  tender 
soul,  expressed  a  doubt  as  to  the  truth  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, or  prayed  to  the  wrong  God,  or  to  the  right 
one  by  the  wrong  name,  then  the  real  God  leaped 
like  a  wounded  tiger  upon  his  victim,  and  from  his 
quivering  flesh  tore  his  wretched  soul. 

There  is  no  recorded  instance  where  the  uplifted 
hand  of  murder  has  been  paralyzed  —  no  truthful 
account  in  all  the  literature  of  the  world  of  the  inno- 
cent child  being  shielded  by  God.  Thousands  of 
crimes  are  being  committed  every  day  —  men  are  at 
this  moment  lying  in  wait  for  their  human  prey  • — 
wives  are  whipped  and  crushed,  driven  to  insanity 
and  death  —  little  children  begging  for  mercy,  lifting 
imploring,  tear-filled  eyes  to  the  brutal  faces  of 
fathers  and  mothers  —  sweet  girls  are  deceived, 
lured  and  outraged,  but  God  has  no  time  to  prevent 
these  things  —  no  time  to  defend  the  good  and  pro- 
tect the  pure.  He  is  too  busy  numbering  hairs  and 
watching  sparrows.  He  listens  for  blasphemy ; 
looks  for  persons  who  laugh  at  priests  ;  examines 
baptismal  registers  ;  watches  professors  in  college 
who  begin  to  doubt  the  geology  of  Moses  and  the 
astronomy  of  Joshua.  He  does  hot  particularly  ob- 
ject to  stealing,  if  you  won't  swear.  A  great  many 


66  VOLTAIRE. 

persons  have  fallen  dead  in  the  act  of  taking  God's 
name  in  vain,  but  millions  of  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren have  been  stolen  from  their  homes  and  used  as 
beasts  of  burden,  but  no  one  engaged  in  this  infamy 
has  ever  been  touched  by  the  wrathful  hand  of  God. 
Now  and  then  a  man  of  genius,  of  sense,  of  intel- 
lectual honesty,  has  appeared.  Such  men  have  de- 
nounced the  superstitions  of  their  day.  They  have 
pitied  the  multitude.  To  see  priests  devour  the 
substance  of  the  people  —  priests  who  made  beg- 
ging one  of  the  learned  professions  —  filled  them 
with  loathing  and  contempt.  These  men  were  hon- 
est enough  to  tell  their  thoughts,  brave  enough  to 
speak  the  truth.  Then  they  were  denounced,  tried, 
tortured,  killed  by  rack  or  flame.  But  some  escaped 
the  fury  of  the  fiends  who  love  their  enemies,  and 
died  naturally  in  their  beds.  It  would  not  do  for 
the  Church  to  admit  that  they  died  peacefully.  That 
would  show  that  religion  was  not  essential  at  the  last 
moment.  Superstition  gets  its  power  from  the  ter- 
ror of  death.  It  would  not  do  to  have  the  common 
people  understand  that  a  man  could  deny  the  Bible 
-refuse  to  kiss  the  cross  —  contend  that  Humanity 
was  greater  than  Christ,  and  then  die  as  sweetly  as 
Torquemada  did,  after  pouring  molten  lead  into  the 


VOLTAIRE.  67 

ears  of  an  honest  man  ;  or  as  calmly  as  Calvin  after 
he  had  burned  Servetus  ;  or  as  peacefully  as  King 
David  after  advising  with  his  last  breath  one  son  to 
assassinate  another. 

The  Church  has  taken  great  pains  to  show  that 
the  last  moments  of  all  infidels  (that  Christians  did 
not  succeed  in  burning)  were  infinitely  wretched 
and  despairing.  It  was  alleged  that  words  could 
not  paint  the  horrors  that  were  endured  by  a  dying 
infidel.  Every  good  Christian  was  expected  to,  and 
generally  did,  believe  these  accounts.  They  have 
been  told  and  retold  in  every  pulpit  of  the  world. 
Protestant  ministers  have  repeated  the  lies  invented 
by  Catholic  priests,  and  Catholics,  by  a  kind  of  theo- 
logical comity,  have  sworn  to  the  lies  told  by  the 
Protestants.  Upon  this  point  they  have  always 
stood  together,  and  will  as  long  as  the  same  false- 
hood can  be  used  by  both. 

Instead  of  doing  these  things,  Voltaire  wilfully 
closed  his  eyes  to  the  light  of  the  gospel,  examined 
the  Bible  for  himself,  advocated  intellectual  liberty, 
struck  from  the  brain  the  fetters  of  an  arrogant 
faith,  assisted  the  weak,  cried  out  against  the  torture 
of  man,  appealed  to  reason,  endeavored  to  establish 
universal  toleration,  succored  the  indigent,  and  de- 
fended the  oppressed. 


68  VOLTAIRE. 

He  demonstrated  that  the  origin  of  all  religions  is 
the  same,  the  same  mysteries  —  the  same  miracles— 
the  same  imposture  —  the  same  temples  and  cere- 
monies —  the  same  kind  of  founders,  apostles  and 
dupes  —  the  same  promises  and  threats  —  the  same 
pretence  of  goodness  and  forgiveness  and  the  prac- 
tice of  the  same  persecution  and  murder.  He  proved 
that  religion  made  enemies  —  philosophy  friends  — 
and  that  above  the  rights  of  Gods  were  the  rights  of 
man. 

These  were  his  crimes.  Such  a  man  God  would 
not  suffer  to  die  in  peace.  If  allowed  to  meet  death 
with  a  smile,  others  might  follow  his  example,  until 
none  would  be  left  to  light  the  holy  fires  of  the  auto 
dafe.  It  would  not  do  for  so  great,  so  successful  an 
enemy  of  the  Church,  to  die  without  leaving  some 
shriek  of  fear,  some  shudder  of  remorse,  some  ghast- 
ly prayer  of  chattered  horror,  uttered  by  lips  covered 
with  blood  and  foam. 

For  many  centuries  the  theologians  have  taught 
that  an  unbeliever  —  an  infidel  —  one  who  spoke  or 
wrote  against  their  creed,  could  not  meet  death  with 
composure  ;  that  in  his  last  moments  God  would  fill 
his  conscience  with  the  serpents  of  remorse. 

For  a  thousand  years  the  clergy   have  manufac- 


VOLTAIRE.  69 

tured  the  facts  to  fit  this  theory — this  infamous  con- 
ception of  the  duty  of  man  and  the  justice  of  God. 

The  theologians  have  insisted  that  crimes  against 
man  were,  and  are,  as  nothing  compared  with  crimes 
against  God. 

Upon  the  death-bed  subject  the  clergy  grow  elo- 
quent. When  describing  the  shudderings  and 
shrieks  of  the  dying  unbeliever,  their  eyes  glitter 
with  delight. 

It  is  a  festival. 

They  are  no  longer  men.  They  become  hyenas. 
They  dig  open  graves.  They  devour  the  dead. 

It  is  a  banquet. 

Unsatisfied  still,  they  paint  the  terrors  of  Hell. 
They  gaze  at  the  souls  of  the  infidels  writhing  in  the 
coils  of  the  worm  that  never  dies.  They  see*  them 
in  flames  —  in  oceans  of  fire  —  in  gulfs  of  pain  —  in 
abysses  of  despair.  They  shout  with  joy.  They 
applaud. 

It  is  an  auto  dafe,  presided  over  by  God. 


7O  VOLTAIRE. 


VIII. 

THE  SECOND  RETURN. 

COR  four  hundred  years  the  Bastile  had  been  the 
outward  symbol  of  oppression.  Within  its  walls 
the  noblest  had  perished.  It  was  a  perpetual  threat. 
It  was  the  last,  and  often  the  first,  argument  of  king 
and  priest.  Its  dungeons,  damp  and  rayless,  its  mas- 
sive towers,  its  secret  cells,  its  instruments  of  torture, 
denied  the  existence  of  God. 

In  1789,  on  the  i4th  of  July,  the  people,  the  mul- 
titude, frenzied  by  suffering,  stormed  and  captured 
the  Bastile.  The  battle-cry  was  "  Vive  Voltaire." 

In  1791  permission  was  given  to  place  in  the  Pan- 
theon the  ashes  of  Voltaire.  He  had  been  buried 
1 10  miles  from  Paris.  Buried  by  stealth,  he  was  to 
be  removed  by  a  nation.  A  funeral  procession  of  a 
hundred  miles  ;  every  village  with  its  flags  and 
arches  ;  all  the  people  anxious  to  honor  the  philoso- 
pher of  France  —  the  Savior  of  Calas  —  the  De- 
stroyer of  Superstition. 

On  reaching  Paris  the  great  procession  moved 
along  the  Rue  St.  Antoine.  Here  it  paused,  and 


VOLTAIRE.  7 1 

for  one  night  upon  the  ruins  of  the  Bastile  rested  the 
body  of  Voltaire  —  rested  in  triumph,  in  glory  - 
rested  on  fallen  wall  and  broken  arch,  on  crumbling 
stone  still  damp  with  tears,  on  rusting  chain  and  bar 
and  useless  bolt  —  above  the  dungeons  dark  and 
deep,  where  light  had  faded  from  the  lives  of  men 
and  hope  had  died  in  breaking  hearts. 

The    conqueror    resting   upon    the   conquered.— 
Throned   upon   the    Bastile,    the    fallen   fortress   of 
Night,  the  body  of  Voltaire,  from  whose  brain  had 
issued  the  Dawn. 

For  a  moment  his  ashes  must  have  felt  the  Pro- 
methean fire,  and  the  old  smile  must  have  illumined 
once  more  the  face  of  death. 

The  vast  multitude  bowed  in  reverence,  hushed 
with  love  and  awe  heard  these  words  uttered  by  a 
priest :  "  God  shall  be  avenged." 

The  cry  of  the  priest  was  a  prophecy.  Priests 
skulking  in  the  shadows  with  faces  sinister  as  night, 
ghouls  in  the  name  of  the  Gospel,  desecrated  the 
grave.  They  carried  away  the  ashes  of  Voltaire. 

The  tomb  is  empty. 

God  is  avenged. 

The  world  is  filled  with  his  fame. 

Man  has  conquered. 


72  VOLTAIRE. 

Was  there  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  a  man 
wearing  the  vestments  of  the  church,  the  equal  of 
Voltaire  ? 

What  cardinal,  what  bishop,  what  priest  in  France 
raised  his  voice  for  the  rights  of  men  ?  What  ec- 
clesiastic, what  nobleman,  took  the  side  of  the  op- 
pressed—  of  the  peasant?  Who  denounced  the 
frightful  criminal  code  —  the  torture  of  suspected 
persons  ?  What  priest  pleaded  for  the  liberty  of  the 
citizen  ?  What  bishop  pitied  the  victims  of  the 
rack  ?  Is  there  the  grave  of  a  priest  in  France  on 
which  a  lover  of  liberty  would  now  drop  a  flower  or 
a  tear  ?  Is  there  a  tomb  holding  the  ashes  of  a  saint 
from  which  emerges  one  ray  of  light  ? 

If  there  be  another  life  —  a  day  of  judgment,  no 
God  can  afford  to  torture  in  another  world  the  man 
who  abolished  torture  in  this.  If  God  be  the  keeper 
of  an  eternal  penitentiary,  he  should  not  imprison 
there  the  men  who  broke  the  chains  of  slavery  here. 
He  cannot  afford  to  make  an  eternal  convict  of 
Voltaire. 

Voltaire  was  a  perfect  master  of  the  French  lan- 
guage, knowing  all  its  moods,  tenses  and  declina- 
tions, in  fact  and  in  feeling  • —  playing  upon  it  as 
skillfully  as  Paganini  on  his  violin,  finding' expres- 


VOLTAIRE.  73 

sion  for  every  thought  and  fancy,  writing  on  the 
most  serious  subjects  with  the  gayety  of  a  harele- 
quin,  plucking  jests  from  the  crumbling  mouth 
of  death,  graceful  as  the  waving  of  willows,  deal- 
ing in  double  meanings  that  covered  the  asp  with 
flowers  and  flattery  —  master  of  satire  and  com- 
pliment—  mingling  them  often  in  the  same  line, 
always  interested  himself,  and  therefore  interesting 
others — handling  thoughts,  questions,  subjects  as  a 
juggler  does  balls,  keeping  them  in  the  air  with  per- 
fect ease — dressing  old  words  in  new  meanings, 
charming,  grotesque,  pathetic,  mingling  mirth  with 
tears,  wit  and  wisdom,  and  sometimes  wickedness, 
logic  and  laughter.  With  a  woman's  instinct  know- 
ing the  sensitive  nerves — just  where  to  touch- 
hating  arrogance  of  place,  the  stupidity  of  the  solemn 
—snatching  masks  from  priest  and  king,  knowing 
the  springs  of  action  and  ambition's  ends — perfectly 
familiar  with  the  great  world — the  intimate  of  kings, 
and  their  favorites,  sympathizing  with  the  oppressed 
and  imprisoned,  with  the  unfortunate  and  poor, 
hating  tyranny,  despising  superstition,  and  loving 
liberty  with  all  his  heart.  Such  was  Voltaire  writing 
"  CEdipus  "  at  seventeen,  "  Irene  "  at  eighty-three, 
and  crowding  between  these  two  tragedies  the  ac- 
complishment of  a  thousand  lives. 


74  VOLTAIRE. 

From  his  throne  at  the  foot  of  the  Alps,  he 
pointed  the  finger  of  scorn  at  every  hypocrite  in 
Europe.  For  half  a  century,  past  rack  and  stake, 
past  dungeon  and  cathedral,  past  altar  and  throne,  he 
carried  with  brave  hands  the  sacred  torch  of  Reason, 
whose  light  at  last  will  flood  the  world. 


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Cabinet,  25cts.    Ingersoll  and  granddaughter  Eva  III ,  (a  home  picture,)  35  cts. 

About  the  Holy  Bible.  Just  out.  A  new  Lecture  About  the  Holy 
Bible.  Price,  paper,  25  cents. 

Shakespeare.  Ingersoll's  Great  Lecture  on  Shakespeare,  with  a  rare  and 
handsome  half-tone  picture  of  the  Kesselstadt  Death  Mask.  Paper,  25  cts. 

Lecture  on  Abraham  Lincoln,    just  out.  with  a  handsome,  new 

portrait.    Price,  paper,  25  cents. 

The   Great  Ingersoll    Controversy,     containing  the  Famous 

Christmas  Sermon,  by  Colonel  R.  G.  Ingersoll,  the  indignant  protests  thereby 
evoked  from  ministers  of  various  denominations,  and  Col.  Ingersoll's  replies 
to  the  same.  A  work  of  tremendous  interest  to  every  thinking  man  and  woman. 
Price,  paper,  25  cts. 

IS  Suicide  a  Sin?  "Something  Brand  New!"  Ingersoll's  startling, 
brilliant  and  thrillingly  eloquent  letters,  which  created  such  a  sensation  when 
published  in  the  New  York  World,  together  with  the  replies  of  famous  clergymen 
and  writers,  a  verdict  from  a  jury  of  eminent  men  of  New  York,  Curious  Facts 
About  Suicides,  celebrated  essays  and  opinions  of  noted  men,  and  an  astonish- 
ing and  original  chapter,  Great  Suicides  of  History  !  Price,  paper,  25  cts. 

An  Open  Letter  to  Indianaoolis  Clergymen.     By  colonel 

R.  G.  Ingersoll.  To  which  is  added  "  The  Genesis  of  Life,"  by  W.  H.  Lamaster. 
Paper,  25  cents. 


Col.  Ingersoll's  Note  to  the  Public. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  July  10, 1889. 

I  wish  to  notify  the  public  that  all  books  and  pamphlets  purporting  to  contain  my  lec- 
tures, and  not  containing  the  imprint  of  Mr.  C.P.  FARRELL  as  publisher,  are  spurious, 
grossly  inaccurate,  filled  with  mistakes,  horribly  printed,  and  outrageously  unjust  to  me. 
The  publishers  of  all  such  are  simply  literary  thieves  and  pirates,  and  are  obtaining  money 
from  the  public  under  false  pretences.  These  wretches  have  published  one  lecture  under 
four  titles,  and  several  others  under  two  or  three.  I  take  this  course  to  warn  the  public 
that  these  publications  are  fraudulent ;  the  only  correct  editions  being  those  published  by 
Mr.  C.  P.  FARRELL. 

R.  G.  INGERSOLL. 


PROSE-POEMS 

—AND  — 

SELECTIONS, 

BY 

ROBERT  fi    TWGERSOLL. 

VA.     A_   ._  ~^~ 

Third  Edition,   Revised  and  Enlarged. 

R.  ^andsome  Quarto,  contammg  crser  300  pages. 


f  I  1HIS  is,  beyond  question,  the  most  elegant  volume  in  Liberal  literature.    Its 

mechanical  finish  is  worthy  of  its  intrinsic  excellence.    No  expense  has  been 

spared  to  make  it  the  thing  of  beauty  it  is.    The  type  is  large  and  clear,  the 

paper  heavy,  highly  calendered  and  richly  tinted,  the  press-work  faultless,  and  th« 

binding.  as  perfect  as  the  best  materials  and  skill  can  make  it.    The  book  is  in  every 

way  an  artistic  triumph. 

As  to  the  contents,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  they  include  some  of  the  choicest 
utterances  of  the  greatest  writer  on  the  topics  treated  that  has  ever  lived. 

Those  who  have  not  the  good  fortune  to  own  all  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  published 
works,  vrill  have  in  this  book  of  selections  many  bright  samples  of  his  lofty  thought, 
his  matchless  eloquence,  his  wonderful  imagery,  and  his  epigrammatic  and  poetic 
power.  The  collection  includes  all  of  the  "  Tributes  "  that  have  become  famous  in 
literature  —  notably  those  to  his  brother  E.  C.  Ingersoll,  Lincoln,  Grant,  Beecher  and 
Elizur  Wright  ;  his  peerless  monograms  on  "  The  Vision  of  War,"  Love,  Liberty, 
Science,  Nature,  The  Imagination,  Decoration  Day  Oration,  and  on  the  great  heroes 
of  intellectual  liberty.  Besides  these  are  innumerable  gems  taken  here  and  there 
from  the  orations,  speeches,  arguments,  toasts,  lectures,  letters,  and  day  to  day  con- 
versations of  the  author. 

The  book  is  designed  for,  and  will  be  accepted  by,  admiring  friends  as  a  u,re 
personal  souvenir.  To  help  it  serve  this  purpose,  a  fine  steel  portrait,  with  autograp1  , 
fac-simile,  has  been  prepared  especially  for  it.  In  the  more  elegant  styles  of  bindh-  g 
it  is  eminently  suited  for  presentation  purposes,  for  any  season  or  occasion. 

PRICES. 

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In  Full  Turkey  Morocco,  gilt,  exquisitely  fine,  7.5O 

In  Full  Tree-Calf,  highest  possible  finish,   -       -  9.OO 
Sent  to  any  address,  by  express,  prepaid,  or  mail,  postTree,  on  receipt  of  price. 


A.DPRESS    C.    F>.    K  A.  R.  R.  EIv  Iv  , 

4OO  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City. 


400  YEARS  OF 
FREETHOUGHT. 

By  SAMUEL  PORTER  PUTNAM. 

Large  Octavo,  1165   pages,  Gilt  Sides  and  Back,  Marbled 
Edges.     Price,  $5. 

141  Full-page  Half-tone  Portraits  of  the  Most  Eminent  Free- 
thinkers and  Philosophers.  Living  and  Dead,  of 
the  Past  Four  Hundred   Years. 


The  great  work  of  Mr.  S.  P.  Putnam,  "  FOUR  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  FREE- 
THOUGHT,"  is  now  ready  for  delivery,  and  all  of  the  original  subscribers  having 
been  supplied,  new  orders  will  be  promptly  filled. 

Every  phase  of  Progress  arid  development — intellectual,  moral,  literary, 
social,  industrial,  and  political — has  been  presented,  and  this  development  is 
shown  in  orderly  sequence  in  such  a  manner  as  to  give  the  best  picture  possi- 
ble of  human  evolution.  This  book  is  in  two  parts— the  first  part  dealing  with 
Freethought  as  an  influence  and  as  a  power  manifesting  itself  sporadically,  as 
might  be  said,  in  all  departments  of  life  and  in  all  portions  of  the  civilized  world. 
The  second  part  shows  how  this  spirit  or  power  has  become  organized  in 
Europe  and  America;  gives  the  history  of  its  struggles  and  accomplisments, 
together  with  the  lives  of  the  men  and  women  who  have  taken  part  in  the 
movement.  It  is  all  deeply  interesting  and  most  thoroughly  instructive  It 
must  do  much  in  the  way  of  uniting  now-living  Freethinkers,  and  it  will 
preserve  imperishably  the  story  of  the  Freethinkers  of  the  past  who  so  nobly 
devoted  their  lives  to  the  service  of  mankind.  No  other  work  of  the  kind  has 
ever  been  attempted. 

Colonel  Ingersoll  says  of  it : 

"NEW  YORK,  Nov.  4,  1894. 

"DEAR  PUTNAM:  Well,  I  have  read  the  "  Four  Hundred  Years  of  Free- 
thought."  It  is  a  book  that  every  Freethinker  ought  to  have,  and  that  every 
child  of  superstition  ought  to  read.  Every  clergyman  should  study  its  pages,  so 
that  hereafter  he  can  tell  the  truth  about  the  mental  pioneers  of  our  race. 

"  I  forgive  you  for  having  given  me  too  great  credit,  for  having  multi- 
plied and  exaggerated  my  virtues  and  ignored  my  defects. 

"  The  book  is  written  with  great  clearness— with  great  force  and  beauty. 
Many  of  the  pages  are  poems,  and  these  poems  are  rilled  with  pliilo«ophy. 
Every  line  is  warm,  alive,  and  throbbing  with  enthusiasm— with  love  for  the 
right  and  for  man. 

"  You  have  done  a  great  service  to  a  sacred  cause,  and  I  thank  you  with 
all  my  heart.  Yours  always,  R.  G.  INGERSOLL." 

Price,  $5,      Address  C,  P,  FARRELL,  400  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York, 


Works  of  Thomas  Paine. 

Common  Sense.  A  Revolutionary  pamphlet  addressed  to  t  j  inhab- 
itants of  America  in  1776,  with  an  explanatory  notice  by  an  English  author. 
Paine's  first  and  most  important  political  work.  Paper  15  cts. 

The  CriSiS.  16  numbers.  Written  during  the  darkest  hours  of  the  American 
Revolution  "  in  the  the  times  that  tried  men's  souls."  Paper,  3oc.;  cloth  500. 

The  RlghtS  Of  Man.  Being  an  answer  to  Burke's  attack  upon  the 
French  Revolution.  A  work  almost  without  a  peer.  Paper,  300.;  cloth,  500. 

The  Age  Of  ReaSOn.  Being  an  investigation  of  True  and  Fabulous 
Theology.  A  new  and  unabridged  edition.  For  nearly  one  hundred  years 
the  clergy  have  been  vainly  trying  to  answer  this  book.  Paper  250. ;  cloth  500. 

Paine's  Religious  and  Theological  Works  complete. 

Comprising  the  Affe  of  Reason  —  An  Investigation  of  True  and  Fabulous 
Theology ;  An  Examination  of  the  Prophecies  of  the  coming  of  Jesus 
Christ ;  The  Hooks  of  Mark,  Luke  and  John ;  Contrary  Doctrines  in  the 
New  Testament  between  Matthew  and  Mark ;  An  Essay  on  Dreams ; 
Private  Thoughts  on  a  Future  State ;  A  Letter  to  the  Hon.  Thomas 
Erskine;  Religious  Year  of  the  Theophilanthropists;  Precise  History 
of  the  Theophilanthropists ;  A  Discourse  Delivered  to  the  Society  of 
Theophilanthropists  at  Paris;  A  Letter  to  Camille  Jordan ;  Origin  of  Free- 
masonry ;  The  Names  in  the  Book  of  Genesis ;  Extract  from  a  Reply 
to  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff ;  The  Book  of  Job;  Sabbath  or  Sunday;  Future 
State;  Miracles;  An  Answer  to  a  Friend  on  the  Publication  of  the  Age 
of  Reason .-  Letters  to  Samuel  Adams  and  Andrew  A.  Dean ;  Remarks 
on  Robert  Hall's  Sermons ;  The  word  Religion ;  Cain  and  Abel ;  The 
Tower  of  Babel ;  To  Members  of  the  Society  styling  itself  the  Missionary 
Society ;  Religion  of  Deism ;  The  Sabbath  Day  of  Connecticut ;  Ancient 
History  ;  Bishop  Moore;  John  Mason;  Books  of  the  New  Testament ;  Deism 
and  the  Writings  of  Thomas  Paine,  etc.  The  work  has  also  a  fine  Portrait  of 
Paine,  as  Deputy  to  the  National  Convention  in  France,  and  portraits  of 
Samuel  Adams,  Thomas  Erskine,  Camille  Jordan,  Richard  Watson,  and 
other  illustrations.  One  vol.,  post  8vo.,  432  pages,  paper  50  cts.,  cloth  $1.00. 

Paine's   Principal   Political  Works,    containing  common 

Sense  ;  The  Crisis,  (16  numbers) ,  Letter  to  the  Abb6  Raynal  •  Letter  from 
Thomas  Paine  to  General  Washington  ;  Letter  from  General  Washington  to 
Thomas  Paine;  Rights  of  Man,  parts  land  II.;  Letter  to  the  Abbfi  Sieyes. 
With  portrait  and  illustrations.  In  one  volume,  655  pages,  price,  cloth  $1.00. 

Paine's  Political  Works  complete,  in  two  vois.,  containing 

over  500  pp.  each,  post  8vo,  cloth,  with  portrait  and  illustrations.   $i  oo  per  vol. 

Volume  I.  contains :  Common  Sense  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Quakers ;  The 
Crisis,  (the  16  Numbers  Complete) ;  A  Letter  to  the  Abb6  Raynal ;  Letter 
from  Paine  to  Washington  ;  Letter  from  Washington  to  Paine  ;  Dissertation 
on  Government,  the  Affairs  of  the  Bank  and  Paper  Money  ;  Prospects  on  the 
Rubicon ;  or,  an  Investigation  into  the  Causes  and  Consequences  of  the  Poli- 
tics to  be  agitated  at  the  next  Meeting  of  Parliament;  Public  Good,  being  an 
Examination  into  the  claim  of  Virginia  to  the  Western  Territory,  etc. 

Volume  II.  contains :  Rights  of  Man  in  two  Parts,  (Part  I.  being  an  Answer 
to  Burke's  Attack  on  the  French  Revolution  ;  Part  II.  contains  Principle  and 
Practice) ;  Letter  to  Abb6  Sieyes  ;  To  the  Authors  of  the  Republican  ;  Letter 
Addressed  to  the  Addressers  on  the  Late  Proclamation ;  Letters  to  Lord 
Onslow;  Dissertation  on  First  Principles  of  Government;  Letters  to  Mr. 
Secretary  Dundas;  Speech  in  the  French  National  Convention;  Reasons 
for  Sparing  the  Life  of  Louis  Capet ;  Letter  to  the  People  of  France  ;  On  the 
Propriety  of  Bringing  Louis  XVI.  to  Trial;  Speech  in  the  National  Conven- 
tion on  the  Question,  "  Shall  or  shall  not  a  Respite  of  the  Sentence  of  Louis 
XVI.  take  place?"  To  the  People  of  France  and  the  French  Armies;  Decline 
and  Fall  of  the  English  System  of  Finance  ;  Agrarian  Justice,  etc. 

Life  Of  Thomas  Paine.  By  the  editor  of  the  National,  with  Preface 
and  Notes  by  Peter  Eckler.  Illustrated  with  views  of  the  Old  Paine  Home- 
stead and  Paine  Monument  at  New  Rochelle  ;  also,  portraits  of  the  most 
prominent  of  Paine's  friends  in  Europe  and  America.  As  "a  man  is  known 
by  the  company  he  keeps,"  these  portraits  of  Paine's  associates  are  in  them- 
selves a  sufficient  refutation  of  the  wicked  libels  against  Paine  that  have  so 
long  disgraced  sectarian  literature.  Post  8vo,  paper  50  cts.;  cloth  75  cts. 

Vindication.     A  Reply  to  the  New  York  Observer's  attack 
upon  the  Author-hero  of  tha  Revolution,  by  R.  G.  Ingersoll.    Paper,  15  cts. 


OCSB    LIBRARY 


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Volney's  Ruins  of  Empires  and  the  Law  of  Nature,  with  Por- 

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Ancients.  Also,  Volney's  Answer  to  Dr.  Priestly,  a  Biographical  Notice  by 
Count  Daru,  and  an  Explanation  of  the  Zodiacal  Signs  and  Constellations  by 
Peter  Eckler.  248  pp.,  cloth  75  cts.  ;  paper  50  cts.  ;  half  calf  $3.00. 

Gibbon's  History  Of  Christianity.  With  Preface,  Life  of  Gibbon, 
and  Notes  by  Peter  Eckler;  also  variorum  Notes  by  Guizot,  Wenck,  Mill- 
man,  etc.  Portrait  of  Gibbon  and  many  engravings  of  mythological  divini- 
ties. Post  8vo,  864  pp.,  cloth  $2.00,  half  "calf  $4.00. 

3Ieslier*S  Superstition  ill  All  Ages.  Jean  Meslier  was  a  Roman  Cath- 
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abjured  religious  dogmas,  and  left  this  work  as  his  last  Will  and  Testament 
to  his  parishioners  and  to  the  world.  339  pp.,  portrait.  Cloth  $i  oo,  paper- 
50  cts.  ;  halt  calf  $4.  fST'The  same  work  in  German,  cloth  $1.00,  paper  50  cts. 

Voltaire's  Romances.  A  new  Edition,  containing  twenty-two  of  Vol- 
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Preface  and  notes  by  Peter  Eckler.  Cloth  $1.50,  paper  $1.00,  half  calf  $4.00. 

Biichner's  Force  and  Matter,  OR  pRixcipLEsoFTHENATURALO;<nrK 

OF  THE  UNIVERSE.  With  a  system  of  Morality  based  thereon.  A  scientific 
work  of  great  ability  and  merit.  Post  8vo,  4i4~pp.,  with  Portrait,  Cloth  Si  oo. 

Buchner*s  Man  in  the  Past,  Present,  and  Future,   it  describes 

Man  as  "  a  being  not  put  up_on  the  earth  accidentally  by  an  arbitrary  act, 
but  produced  in  harmony  with  the  earth's  nature,  and  belonging  to  it  as  do 
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Haeckel'S  Visit  tO  Ceyloil.  With  Portrait,  and  Map  of  India  and  Ceylon. 
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Rousseau's  Profession  of  Faith  of  the  Vicar  of  Savoy.    Also, 

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HiggillS'  Horse  SabbatlCSe,  Or  an  Attempt  to  Correct  Certain  Supersti- 
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The  Great  IngerSOll  Controversy.  Containing  an  eloquent  Christ- 
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divines.  213  pp.,  paper  25  cts. 

Dickens'  Sunday  Under  Three  Heads.—  AS  it  is;  as  Sabbath  bills 

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by  Phiz.  Portrait.  Preface  by  Peter  Eckler.  Cloth  50  cts.,  paper  25  cts. 

Btdwer's  History  of  a  False  Religion  and  BROUGHAM'S  ORIGIN 

OF  EVIL.    Preface  by  Peter  Eckler.    Cloth  50  cts.;  paper  25  cts.    In  Press. 

Paine's  Religious  and  Theological  Works  Complete.  $1.00 
Paine's  Political  Works  Complete,  in  2  volumes,  illustrated,  $2  oo. 
Paine's  Principal  Political  Works,  in  i  volume,  illustrated,  $1.00. 

Common  Sense.  Paine's  first  and  most  important  political  work.  Paper  isc 
Pailie'S  Crisis.  The  sixteen  numbers  complete.  Cloth  50  cts.;  paper  30  cts. 
Rights  Of  Alan.  A  work  almost  without  a  peer.  279  pp.  Cloth  soc.  paper  300. 

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Life  Ot  Paine,  with  many  portraits  and  illustrations.     Cloth  750;  paper  joe. 


A     000  609 

INGERSOLL'S  Lhuuki£ 

*IN  ONE  VOLUME.^ 


CONTENTS: 


THE   GODS.  HUMBOLDT,  INDIVIDUALITY, 

THOMAS   PAINE,  HERETICS  AND  HERESIES. 

THE   GHOSTS. 

THE   LIBERTY   OF   MAN,  WOMAN  AND  CHILD, 

THE   CENTENNIAL   ORATION,  OR  DECLARATION  OF 
INDEPENDENCE,  July  4,  1876. 

WHAT  I  KNOW  ABOUT  FARMING  IN  ILLINOIS. 

SPEECH  AT  CINCINNATI  IN  1876.  nominating 

James  G.  Blaine  for  the  Presidency. 

THE  PAST  RISES  BEFORE  ME;  OR.  VISION  OF  WAR, 
an  extract  from  a  Speech  made  at  the  Soldiers  and   Sailors 
Reunion  at  Indianapolis,  Indiana,  Sept.  21,  1876. 

A  TRIBUTE   TO   EBON   C.   INGERSOLL. 

SOME   MISTAKES   OF   MOSES. 

WHAT   MUST  WE    DO   TO    BE   SAVED? 

SIX   INTERVIEWS  WITH    ROBERT  G.   INGERSOLL 

ON  SIX  SERMONS  BY  THE  Rev.  T.  DEWITT 

TALMAGE,    D.  D. ;  to  which  is  added  a 

TALMAGIAN  CATECHISM. 

And  FOUR    PREFACES,  which  contain   some  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's 
wittiest  and  brightest  sayings. 

This  volume  contains  a  fine  steel  portrait  of  the  author,  and 
has  had  the  greatest  popularity,  is  beautifully  bound  in  Half 
Morocco,  mottled  edges,  1,300  pages,  good  paper,  large  type, 
small  8vo. 

Price,  post  paid,  $5.00. 


New  Books  by  Col.  R.  G.  IngersoII. 
A    NEW    LECTURE 

About  the  Holy  Bible 

Price,  paper,  Twenty-five  cents. 


a* 

"SOMETHING     BRAND    NEW  I" 

INGERSOLL'S  startling,  brilliant  and  .thr-llingly  eloquent  letters,  which  crea- 
*  ated  such  a  sensation  when  published  in  the  New  York  World,  together 
with  the  replies  of  famous  clergymen  and  writers,  a  verdict  from  a  jury  of  em- 
inent  men  of  New  York,  Curious  Pacts  About  Suicides,  celebrated  Essays  and 
Opinions  of  noted  men,  and  an  astonishing  and  original  chapter,  Great  Suicides 
of  History  !  Price,  heavy  paper,  with  portrait  of  Col.  Ingersoll,  25  cents. 

The  American  Newsman  says:  "This  is  something  brand  new  —  curious,  en- 
tertaining,  and  startling  The  letters  are  among  the  finest  products  of  Colonel 
Ingersoll's  genius.  *  *  *  Bound  to  have  a  wide  sale." 

HIS    GREAT    LECTURE    ON 

SHAKESPEARE 

Paper,  Twenty-five  cents. 


|  Lecture  on  Abraham  Lincoln  I 

Price,  Twenty-five  cents,   paper. 

I  THE  GREAT  INGERSOLL  CONTROVERSY.  I 

CONTAINING  THE  FAMOUS  CHRISTMAS  SERMON,  BY 

COL.  R.  G.  INGERSOLL, 

The  indignant  protests  thereby  evoked  from  Ministers  of  various  denomina- 

tions, and  Colonel  Ingersoll's  replies  to  the  same. 

A  work  of  tremendous  interest  to  every  thinking  Man  and  Woman. 

Reprinted  in  full  from  the  Correspondence  on  the  Subject  by  Special  Permission 

of  "The  Evening  Telegram."    Price,  paper,  25  cents. 


A.ddress   G.  !».   FA.RRELL,  -4OO    Fiftli 


.,  JV.  Y. 


